(Adds new material paras 5-6, changes dateline)
By Francois Thomazeau
BRIANCON, France, July 13 - French police have
taken Italian rider Dario Frigo in for questioning after finding
performance-enhancing drugs in a car driven by his wife at the
Tour de France, his team said on Wednesday.
A police source said Frigo, 31, had been detained before
Wednesday's 11th stage of the race in the French Alps.
The source said the rider's wife had been arrested by French
customs on Monday near the French Alps town of Albertville after
some 10 vials were found in the boot of her car.
The vials were being analysed at a laboratory near Lyon.
A source close to the investigation said Frigo's wife,
Susanna, had admitted the drugs were for her husband.
The couple were to be presented on Wednesday to a judge in
Albertville who was expected to place them under judicial
supervision, the source added.
A spokesman for Frigo's Fassa Bortolo team confirmed the
arrest, saying: "The gendarmes came at 0730 (0530 GMT), arrested
him and held him for questioning. It is a case which concerns
only Dario Frigo and not the team."
Frigo was excluded from the Giro D'Italia and banned for
nine months in 2001 after drugs were found in his hotel room
during a police raid.
Wednesday's incident recalls the events of 2002 when the
wife of Lithuanian rider Raimondas Rumsas was arrested by French
customs officers with drugs in her car on the day her husband
finished third in the Tour de France.
Rumsas and his wife will go on trial in November in France.
"This is not the same as the Rumsas case," a source close to
the Frigo investigation said. "We haven't found as much drugs."
Tour de France executive director Jean-Marie Leblanc said he
did not know what drugs were found.
"We deeply regret this case which concerns a rider who has
already had brushes with the police and the sport's
authorities," said Leblanc.
"He belongs to a generation of riders who just won't learn.
That generation has to leave as soon as possible to be replaced
by a generation of riders who respect the rules."
Cycling has been marred by doping for many years. The
situation has improved recently after more tests and tougher
sanctions were introduced.
Tour race director Christian Prudhomme said Fassa Bortolo
team boss Bruno Cenghialta had assured him it was an isolated
incident.
"They are at loss to explain what happened and they insist
the team has nothing to do with it," he said.
"Those who cheat must be excluded from the race," he added.
"Those people have nothing to look for in the Tour de France."