Cycling: 'we Are Not Cheats' Says Millar

Britain's leading cyclist, David Millar, has said that he does not feel the current drug investigation into two former members of his Cofidis team and a team masseur will go much deeper.

"It's sad and annoying," said the world time-trial champion, who will be among the favourites for an Olympic gold in Athens. "This is not a Cofidis scandal but an isolated incident among one of the team."

Referring to the Polish masseur at the centre of the case, which is alleged to involve drugs being smuggled from Eastern Europe to France, Millar added. " This is a scandal involving [Bogdan] Madejak, not a collective conspiracy.

"We are not cheats. I'm confident in the team, and I hope Cofidis remain in cycling for a long time." The team are currently training in Calpe, Spain, and Cofidis's team manager Francois van Londersele said he expected that French police would be waiting to question members of the team on Tuesday when they return to France. "That's pretty much normal in this situation."

Two men were last week placed under investigation under France's anti-drugs laws, the masseur Madejak and a former Cofidis cyclist, also a Pole, Marek Rutkiewicz.

Rutkiewicz, who is accused of smuggling growth hormones into France, has said he is innocent of anything involving drugs. He told the Polish newspaper Przeglad Sportowy: "I have pleaded not guilty. There is a sort of anti-doping hysteria in France, and the police are furious because this case that they have exaggerated so much will turn to nothing. They treat all cyclists like criminals."

Another former Cofidis member, the track cyclist Robert Sassone, at whose home police apparently found a large quantity of banned drugs last week, has been sacked by his new team, St Quentin-MBK.