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Saunier Duval has sacked Riccardo Riccò and Leonardo Piepoli for infringing the Spanish team’s code of ethics, it was announced on Friday. Riccò was dismissed following his positive doping control for EPO (erythropoietin) at the Tour de France. Piepoli also was sacked, though he had not tested positive; team manager Mauro Gianetti said he, too, had infringed the team's code of ethics. The entire Saunier Duval team voluntarily left the Tour before Thursday's 12th stage.

“I'm shocked, shocked to find that gambling is going on in here!”— Captain Renault in “Casablanca,” shortly before a coupier presents him with his winnings.

While the news media were massed around the pale yellow Saunier Duval team bus in Lavelanet Thursday just as stage 12 was setting out farther down the street, Philippe Brunel stood back from the crowd watching the spectacle. I felt sorry for him. As an award-winning French sportswriter — he’s the principal cycling reporter for L’Équipe, the major French sports newspaper — Brunel looked to be in a quandary.

Riccardo Riccò's departure from the Tour de France produced a stack of emails and letters to the editor. Here is a sampling: Zero Tolerance Editor, This little gem was in your one of your Ricardo "Vegetable" Ricco articles: "While teams like CSC, Columbia, Garmin-Chipotle and Astana have financed independent blood-monitoring programs, some question whether that “new cycling” will ever occur until doping in sport is criminalized internationally, as it is in France, and the risks outweigh the incentives."

Riccardo Riccò always wanted to be like his hero, Marco Pantani. The self-styled "Cobra" got his wish Thursday and made a Pantani-esque implosion as two French gendarmes hauled him away after he failed a doping control from stage four at the Tour de France. In a scene that was an eerie replay of Pantani’s exclusion from the 1999 Giro d’Italia for testing for high hematocrit levels, Riccò made his own forced exit Thursday that could have equally grim consequences.

Australia's Cadel Evans has called on cycling's detractors to take a long hard look at what is being done in the sport to clean up its image. For the second consecutive day the Tour de France was rocked by controversy following the news that Italian climber Riccardo Ricco had become the third rider to test positive for the banned blood booster EPO (erythropoietin). Ricco won two climbing stages last week, becoming one of the most followed riders in the Pyrenees where he left many established climbers — including Evans — in his wake with his lightning fast accelerations.

Tour de France organizers ASO may be regretting the choice of music played after the peloton rolled out of Lavelanet at the start of stage 12 Thursday. Only 45 minutes after the news of Ricardo Riccò’s positive test for red-blood cell booster CERA rocked the start village, the public address system blared Frank Sinatra’s “My Way” — fitting perhaps as the swansong for a defiant young rider who rocketed into the spotlight while simultaneously thumbing his nose at the sport’s establishment.

We’re officially more than half way through!

Stage 12, Lavelanet to Narbonne, 168.5km

French anti-doping authorities and Saunier Duval team officials confirmed Thursday that Italian climbing sensation Ricardo Riccò (Saunier Duval) has tested positive for a new form of the blood booster erythropoietin (EPO). Informed of the positive just an hour before the start of Thursday’s 12th stage of the Tour de France, Riccò was taken by gendarmes to a local police station for questioning. Within minutes of Riccò’s departure, his entire team voluntarily withdrew from the Tour.

Mark Cavendish (Team Columbia) won the 12th stage of the 95th edition of the Tour de France — his third stage of this year’s race — as Cadel Evans (Silence-Lotto) retained the leader’s yellow jersey.[nid:80277] "I’m a bit tired now but I was still fastest across the line," said a weary Cavendish with a chuckle. "I’m glad I could do that for my teammates. It’s just so nice to get another one." Evans also praised his team for its efforts on a hot, windy stage.

With the Pyrénées in the rearview mirror, the riders in the 95th Tour de France can now look forward to three less nervous stages across the South of France, where the main obstacle to overcome will be the heat. Temperatures will be in the upper-80s by the end of Thursday’s stage 12 in Narbonne, and somewhat warmer the following two days.

CSC’s Kurt Asle Arvesen emerged atop a successful 12-man break to take the 11th stage of the Tour de France Wednesday, outsprinting a group of four riders that gapped the group near the end of the 167.5km race from Lannemesan to Foix. Following a rest day and a big GC battle on the slopes of Hautacam on Monday, the moderate stage in the foothills of the Pyrenees offered a good opportunity for a break to form and Arvesen managed to join the decisive move that formed at 20km into the stage.

Stage 11, Lannemezan to Foix, 167.5km

All eyes will be on the skies above Mount Snow resort this week, as the U.S.’s best professional and amateur off-road racers gear up for the 2008 USA Cycling national mountain bike championships. The typically damp ski hill in Vermont has seen weeks of sunshine and unusually hot temperatures in the lead up to the July 16-20 racing weekend. And should those skies remain clear, Mount Snow’s famed rooty singletrack should maintain its current fast, dusty state.

After 10 days of VERSUS’ 2008 Tour de France coverage, more than 20.8 million viewers have tuned in to some portion of the race already making it the most-watched Tour in network history. VERSUS, the network that celebrates real competition and the exclusive cable television home of the Tour de France in the U.S., has also seen huge gains in viewership for Men 18-34 and a spike in total viewership for the late night race encores. The national household ratings (Live+Same day) for the live morning telecasts for the first 10 days of the Tour are flat year-to-year (.3).

Last year at Boise's Wells Fargo Twighlight Criterium it was Ivan Dominguez taking advantage of his team’s leadout to hold off second-place finisher Ricardo Escuela (Successful Living) and Jeffery Hopkins (Jittery Joe’s) for the win.

After a quality day of rest in Pau, complete with Chipotle burritos, it was straight back into racing today from the second the gun went off. With big time gaps now in place there are a lot of guys no longer a threat on GC and the chances of breakaways making it to the finish are far higher than in the first week. Garmin's strategy has now shifted a bit, moving from being aggressive wild cards to now sitting in the position of protecting an overall contender.

World cycling chief Pat McQuaid has called on the Spanish authorities to increase their efforts in the fight against doping after the latest doping affair at the Tour de France. Moises Duenas of the Barloworld team became the second Spaniard to leave the race under a cloud Wednesday after being told he had tested positive for the banned blood booster erythropoietin (EPO). Fellow Spaniard Manuel Beltran, of Liquigas, was suspended by his team last week after he also tested positive for EPO.

Don’t Touch His Shoulder: Cadel Evans might be a charming bloke away from the TV cameras, but it’s quickly becoming obvious that he doesn’t particularly enjoy the media duties that come along with the maillot jaune. The Australian is finding time for the media. He patiently answered nearly an hour’s worth of questions on a rest-day press conference Tuesday and worked the line in post-stage comments from TV and radio behind the podium. It seems, however, that Evans is losing his patience with the growing horde.

Christian Vande Velde stepped out of the Garmin-Chipotle team bus Wednesday morning in Lannemazen to find a good-sized media scrum waiting to speak with him. The fact that a dozen scribes and a few TV camera crews wanted to learn more about the American sitting third place overall revealed just how far Vande Velde’s stock has risen midway through the 2008 Tour de France. “I surprised myself a little bit on Hautacam the other day,” Vande Velde said. “But it’s everything I’ve worked for, so every day it’s becoming less and less of a surprise.”

Barloworld’s Moises Duenas has been pulled from the Tour de France after a urine sample provided after stage 4 showed signs of the blood booster erythropoietin. Police later found banned substances in Duenas' hotel room, according to a statement on the Barloworld Web site. The Spaniard was in 19th place in the overall standings, 6:43 behind overall leader Cadel Evans, following Monday’s stage to Hautacam. The team was informed of the positive test by the French Anti-Doping Agency (AFLD) on Wednesday morning and Duenas was immediately suspended from the team.

If Mavic sold the pro-only version of the R-SYS, which popped up at this year’s Tour, it would have been a winner from the beginning.