Ullrich under a cloud

Tomorrow, in the shadow of Milan's great cathedral, the professional season begins in earnest with the start of the opening World Cup round, the Milan-San Remo. This is where the Tour de France winner Lance Armstrong will begin his build-up for a fourth successive victory.

But while his year is already getting under way, there are problems surrounding Jan Ullrich, the only man to have mounted a serious challenge to Armstrong on the past two Tours. Ullrich does not even know when he will be able to ride again, let alone train properly to take on Armstrong. The German has been nursing a knee injury since December and this week postponed his return for the third time in as many weeks.

His doctor on the Telekom team, Lothar Heinrich, admitted the crunch is approaching. "If he is still bad in a couple of weeks we will begin to worry about the Tour de France," he said.

The Belgian cyclist Frank Vandenbroucke has been banned for six months and fined £4,300 for having banned drugs in his possession, a disciplinary commission of the Royal Belgian Cycling League announced yesterday.

Police found morphine, the steroid Clenbuterol and the blood booster EPO in Vandenbroucke's house last month.

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