Police question Italian rider after drugs find

By Etienne Ballerini

COURCHEVEL, France (Reuters) – French police have taken
Italian rider Dario Frigo in for questioning after finding
performance-enhancing drugs in a car driven by his wife at the
Tour de France, his team said on Wednesday.

A police source said Frigo, 31, had been detained before
Wednesday’s stage of the race in the French Alps but gave no
further details.

A spokesman for his Fassa Bortolo team confirmed the
arrest, saying: “The gendarmes came at 0730 (0530 GMT),
arrested him and held him for questioning. It is a case which
concerns only Dario Frigo and not the team.”

Frigo was excluded from the Giro D’Italia and banned for
nine months in 2001 after drugs were found in his hotel room
during a police raid.

Wednesday’s incident recalls the events of 2002 when the
wife of Lithuanian rider Raimondas Rumsas was arrested by
French customs officers with drugs in her car on the day her
husband finished third in Tour de France.

Rumsas and his wife will go on trial in November in France.

“This is not the same as the Rumsas case,” a source close
to the Frigo investigation said. “We haven’t found as much
drugs.”

Tour de France executive director Jean-Marie Leblanc said
police had arrested Frigo’s wife on Wednesday near the French
Alps resort of Chambery.

He said he did not know which drugs were found, nor how
many.

“We deeply regret this case which concerns a rider who has
already had brushes with the police and the sport’s
authorities,” said Leblanc.

“He belongs to a generation of riders who just won’t learn.
That generation has to leave as soon as possible to be replaced
by a generation of riders who respect the rules.”

Cycling has been marred by doping for many years. The
situation has improved recently after more tests and tougher
sanctions were introduced.

Tour race director Christian Prudhomme said Fassa Bortolo
team boss Bruno Cenghialta had assured him it was an isolated
incident.

“They are at loss to explain what happened and they insist
the team has nothing to do with it,” he said.

“Those who cheat must be excluded from the race,” he added.
“Those people have nothing to look for in the Tour de France.”

(Additional reporting by Francois Thomazeau)