Kelme barred from Tour de France for doping

CHARLEVILLE-MEZIERES, France (Reuters) -- Spanish team Kelme have been banned from this year's Tour de France after revelations by their former rider Jose Manzano that he had been forced to take doping products.

Manzano told Spanish sports newspaper As this week he had been obliged to take doping substances that twice put his life in danger.

"We know a little bit more about it now and we decided it was not possible to let the Kelme team take part in our races, including the Tour," Tour chief Jean-Marie Leblanc told Reuters on Friday.

"Even if we're talking about an isolated case, it is obvious, given the list of products taken, that he cannot have acted on his own.

"He has obviously been helped by his team director or his team doctor," Leblanc said.

Kelme did not qualify directly for the Tour de France but organizers had promised them a wild card if they strengthened the team.

"The truth is that the riders and myself have been totally devastated by the news," Kelme team director Vicente Belda told Spanish state television. "We did not expect this, It is unjust to give credibility to these accusations."

Manzano said in his interview with As that he had regularly been given undetectable drugs such as growth hormone while using erythropoietin (EPO) in training and tampering samples before tests.

Kelme riders, including Colombians Santiago Botero and Fabio Parra, and Spaniards Fernando Escartin and Oscar Sevilla, played a prominent role in recent Tours.

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