Tour de France mulls position as Ullrich, Basso linked to probe

Tour de France organizers are mulling their stance two days before cycling's elite race starts after a report that leading contenders Jan Ullrich and Ivan Basso are being investigated in a doping probe.

Race directors "are deciding their position" after Spanish radio station Cadena Ser said the cyclists were part of a preliminary investigation by a Madrid court, race spokesman Matthieu Desplats said in a phone interview. Neither rider has been charged and both have denied wrongdoing.

The judicial probe follows Spain's anti-doping raid on May 23 when police said they found 200 bags of athletes' blood and notes about drug-taking in a Madrid apartment.

Lance Armstrong, the record seven-time Tour de France winner, said in New York in May that the scandal may become "more serious" than the so-called Festina affair of 1998, when Richard Virenque's squad was thrown off the race after drugs were found in a team car. At the 2001 Tour of Italy, 40 riders were charged with drug possession.

Germany's Ullrich, the 1997 Tour de France winner, rides for the T-Mobile team, while Italy's Basso competes for CSC. Luuc Eisenga, a T-Mobile team spokesman, said he couldn't comment. CSC team spokesman Brian Nygaard didn't immediately return a phone message seeking comment.

Blood doping, harder to detect than drug-taking, has been common practice in cycling for more than three years, according to Spanish ex-rider Jesus Manzano.

Dopers extract blood in the close season, take drugs to improve stamina while training and then replace the blood to avoid failing doping controls, Manzano said. Another method is to administer blood during races, which boosts energy by lifting the number of red blood cells.