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BRUSSELS, Belgium -- Seventeen of cycling's top teams asked
the governing body to consider suspending Phonak from the Pro Tour
following Floyd Landis' positive doping tests. The teams also said at a meeting Wednesday the International
Cycling Union should study a similar ban on the Astana team,
formerly known as Liberty Seguros, which has been implicated in a
Spanish doping investigation. "In light of the confusion and the disastrous image caused by
the latest affairs, the UCI pro teams unanimously urge the
licensing committee of the UCI to study the provisional and
immediate suspension" of Phonak and Astana, the teams said in a
statement. The meeting was attended by all the teams except Phonak, Astana
and Ag2r. Phonak owner Andy Rihs said Tuesday he was folding the team at
the end of this season because he failed to find sponsors for 2007
after Landis' victory in this year's Tour de France was called into
doubt by positive doping tests. Astana was banned from the Tour de France this season after
former Liberty Seguros manager Manolo Saiz and five riders were
implicated in the Spanish doping scandal. Wednesday's statement urged the UCI to release the names of all
riders linked to the Spanish investigation by Tuesday, four days
ahead of the start of the Spanish Vuelta. The meeting by the teams comes as prosecutors in Frankfurt,
Germany, opened a criminal investigation of a German doctor
suspected of supplying performance-enhancing drugs to a Spanish
sports physician.
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