Cycling: Fresh Doping Row Afoot

The publication of the independent inquiry into doping allegations involving the seven-times Tour de France winner Lance Armstrong looks set to put the World Anti-Doping Agency and cycling's governing body, the Union Cycliste Internationale, on a collision course after Wada threatened legal action over the findings of the report by the Dutch lawyer Emile Vrijman.

A UCI statement issued on Saturday asked Wada to confirm or deny the four main allegations about the agency's role in the claims reported in the newspaper l'Equipe last August that the blood booster erythropoietin had been found in samples provided by Armstrong in the 1999 Tour when these were retested for research purposes. Vrijman's report said the findings were unclear and did not amount to an anti-doping infraction.

The UCI asked Wada whether it had contact with the newspaper prior to the story's publication as well as whether it had put pressure on the laboratory that tested the samples to enable them to be matched to the athletes who had given them in the first place.

Meanwhile, the drugs scandal centred on blood doping allegations that has rocked Spanish cycling in the last fortnight took a new twist over the weekend with two riders named in press leaks being withdrawn from competition.

José Enrique Gutiérrez and the former Tour de France King of the Mountains Santiago Botero will ride no races for their team, the Swiss squad Phonak, until their innocence is established. Both are alleged to figure on police videos of riders entering and leaving the flat of the doctor at the centre of the inquiry, Eufemiano Fuentes.

"They are neither suspended nor dismissed," said the team manager John Lelangue. "We have taken this measure in the interest of the team and to ensure the team can compete without pressure in upcoming races."

Elsewhere, the Olympic pursuit champion Bradley Wiggins recorded a disappointing 21st place in the prologue time trial of the Dauphiné Libéré stage race, an event he had been targeting as a rehearsal for his main goal of the season, the Tour de France's first stage.