Evans keeps lead as doping hits Tour

[July 17, 2008]  FOIX, France (AP) -- Cadel Evans kept the Tour de France leader's yellow jersey after the final climb of the Pyrenees, while Moises Duenas Nevado woke up to the sound of police banging on his hotel door hours before stage 11 was to start.

Following Manuel Beltran's positive test after the first stage, Duenas Nevado became the second Spanish rider to fail a doping test for EPO -- still a drug of choice for a sport rocked by scandal the past three years.

"It is sad. It is always bad for cycling," said 1996 Tour winner Bjarne Riis, who runs Team CSC. "But I think it's also good. First of all we see the tests work. We have a lot of tests. We need a lot of tests to clean up the sport."

Norwegian Kurt-Asle Arvesen, who rides for Riis, won Wednesday's stage in a photo finish over Swiss cyclist Martin Elmiger, who placed second, and Italian Alessandro Ballan, who was third.

In what is shaping up as the closest race in years, Evans finished in the pack and maintained his 1-second advantage over Team CSC rider Frank Schleck of Luxembourg, with three other contenders all within a minute of the Australian leader.

Doping, however, overshadowed events on the road as riders braved intense heat over the 104.1-mile trek from Lannemezan to Foix, which featured the last big climb of the Pyrenees up the Portel pass.

Earlier Wednesday, in the sleepy town of Tarbes, Duenas Nevado got the kind of wake-up call suspected cheats dread.

He was carted off to face questions as to why he tested positive for the blood-boosting drug EPO after a July 8 time trial on stage four of the three-week race. He was immediately suspended by his Barloworld team.

Riis is well placed to know about the impact doping can have. He admitted last year that he had used EPO and other banned substances during his career as a top Tour cyclist.

Now it's his turn to point the finger at others, even though he never admitted to cheating at the time of doing it.

"Hopefully, slowly, the peloton will understand that this is for real," Riis said, speaking of the pack of riders.

International Cycling Union president Pat McQuaid felt no sympathy for Duenas Nevado.

"If the "B" sample is positive, then all I can say is the guy's a fool," McQuaid said. "The Tour is the biggest event in the world and people will take that risk."

While this latest doping case in the Tour shows the French Anti-Doping agency's testing program appears to be working, it also strongly hints that the fight against doping is not yet a universal theme.

Two years after the Operation Puerto scandal rocked the sport, Spanish cycling is again in the spotlight. The Puerto case tied a large number of riders to a blood-doping clinic run by a Madrid-based doctor, who was linked to 1997 Tour winner Jan Ullrich of Germany and 2005 runner-up Ivan Basso of Italy.

Neither has ridden in the Tour since, but the Puerto case has never fully been solved.

Last year, veteran rider Iban Mayo tested positive -- again for EPO -- before being cleared by his own cycling federation. The UCI is still challenging that ruling.

McQuaid fears the fight against doping might not be as tough in Spain.

"Puerto came in Spain, and Puerto was ... three quarters of the riders involved were Spanish," McQuaid said. "Obviously the message has not got home in Spain yet."

Alejandro Valverde, a Tour contender until he collapsed on Monday's punishing Pyrenean climbs up the Tourmalet and the Hautacam, has also been linked to Puerto. Bags reportedly containing his blood have yet to be opened.

Evans overcame a nasty crash Sunday that nearly knocked him out of the race. He still has plenty of challengers, with Schleck, Christian Vande Velde of the United States, Bernhard Kohl of Austria and Denis Menchov of Russia all poised to attack in Sunday's 15th stage -- the first of three daunting days of Alpine climbs.

Vande Velde is 38 seconds back, Kohl is 46 seconds down and Menchov is 57 seconds adrift. Behind them, climbing specialist Carlos Sastre of Team CSC is down by 1:28.

"We have our plan and we are going to follow our plan," Riis said. "We are in good shape."

So is Evans.

Unable to shake him on the bike, rivals are playing mind games to try to unsettle him.

"I see Denis and Carlos as the main favorites," said Oscar Pereiro, the 2006 Tour winner. "Evans' team is relatively weak."

Pereiro won the 2006 Tour after American rider Floyd Landis was stripped of his title for using synthetic testosterone. Two years later, the Tour is still haunted by the same shadow of doping.

[Associated Press; By JEROME PUGMIRE]

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