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Tour No. 3 suspended after wife arrested Posted: Monday July 29, 2002 9:25 AM
PARIS (AP) -- Raimondas Rumsas, the Lithuanian cyclist who had a breakthrough third place finish in the Tour de France, was suspended Monday by his Lampre team as French police questioned his wife on suspicion of carrying doping products. Edita Rumsas was stopped Sunday, the day the Tour ended, during a customs check of her vehicle in the Alpine border town of Chamonix, said Anne Risterucci, a spokeswoman for the French customs office. The spokeswoman said the cyclist's wife, who was en route to Italy, was carrying "medications that could be considered as doping products." She declined to say what medications, or how much, were found. The border check took place at 8 a.m. local time (0600 GMT) -- more than four hours before the start of Sunday's final stage, which finished on the Champs-Elysees in Paris. It was not immediately known whether the products had anything to do with the Lampre rider, whose whereabouts were not immediately known. His wife remained in police custody in Lyon on Monday. In a statement, Lampre said it was suspending Rumsas immediately while waiting for light to be shed on the case. "If we verify any responsibility on the part of the rider, the Lampre-Daikin team will dismiss him immediately," the team said, adding that it was troubled by the finding and "had nothing to do with what happened." Lampre spokesman Gabriele Sola said he was the only team member who did not fly back to Italy on Sunday. Sola said he was the only team member in the Sofitel Porte de Sevres hotel just outside Paris when police conducted a search that lasted five hours of his room and his team car. The third-place finish was considered a breakthrough for Rumsas, 30, racing in his first Tour de France. He finished 8 minutes, 17 seconds behind Lance Armstrong, who won his fourth straight title. Joseba Beloki of Spain was second. Armstrong praised Rumsas as "the revelation" of this year's race. "He's a real threat for the future because he's a complete rider, as good a racer as a climber," Armstrong said on Saturday. "He never had a bad day and was very consistent." The Tour's vice president, Daniel Baal, said Rumsas was tested at least once during the Tour, and that all the results for tests carried out up to and including July 24 had come back negative. Tour officials were still waiting for results from tests carried out the last four days, Baal said. "If it turns out that there was doping by Rumsas during the Tour, he will lose his position in the standings and be suspended" from the Tour, Baal said in a telephone interview. In the eastern town of Bonneville, prosecutor Thierry Mauguin said that officials were analyzing the medications found in Edita Rumsas' possession. Officials were also looking at two prescriptions written in Polish that were found in her bags. The 1998 Tour was nearly derailed by a doping scandal that started with a border check. Willy Voet, the Festina team's physiotherapist, was caught at the French-Belgian border just before the start of the Tour de France with a stash of illicit products in the team car, notably the performance-enhancing EPO. The Festina team was expelled, and concerns about the use of banned substances at the Tour have persisted ever since.
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