Milan, Italy – Boulder cyclist Tyler Hamilton and Joerg Jaksche of Germany were suspended by their team Wednesday from competing in the Giro d’Italia following pressure to ban riders implicated in the Spanish doping scandal.
Hamilton, the 2004 Olympic road race champion, recently returned to competition after serving a two-year ban for blood doping.
“The management of Tinkoff Credit Systems, as a precaution, has decided to suspend the two riders until the relevant authorities clarify the position of the two riders in connection with Operation Puerto,” the Italian-Russian team said in a statement.
The move came three days before the start of the Giro, one of the world’s three premier multistage tours. Hamilton and Jaksche were left off the team because of “new circumstances and decisions made public in the last few days,” the team said.
“The decision aims to relieve the pressure that has built up over the last few days around the Giro and the team itself, following recent events and the position taken by some other teams,” Tinkoff said.
Hamilton’s and Jaksche’s names turned up on a list of cyclists who allegedly had contact with Spanish doctor Eufemiano Fuentes, who is accused of running a blood-doping clinic in Madrid and is at the center of the Spanish case.
Last year’s Giro champion, Ivan Basso, and fellow Italian rider Michele Scarponi withdrew from the race last week. Both have admitted involvement in the Spanish scandal but deny doping. On Tuesday, Basso said he had confessed to “attempted doping” only.
