Apparently, the officials of Le Tour de France are not quite familiarized with the saying: "innocent until proven guilty". Although he was wrong not more than a week ago concerning Armstrong's alleged doping (an independent investigation firm cleared out the American ace in terms of the doping accusations launched by L'Equipe newspaper and backed up by the Tour manager) - Jean-Merie LeBlanc continues to announce drastic measures.

So, although he is under investigation and has repeatedly stated that he had nothing to do with the latest doping scandal in the cycling world, Manolo Saiz's team is to be banned from this year's edition of Le Tour. It doesn't really matter that a new sponsor invested trust and money intro the ProTour cycling team, or that its leader (Alexandre Vinokourov) is on of the favorites in this year's Tour de France. LeBlanc doesn't see anything but what he thinks is the absolute truth. The worst is that, unfortunately, he is seldom right.

"If the Pro Tour council doesn't take sanctions, Patrice Clerc, Christian Prudhomme - director of the race - and myself will take our responsibilities. I want to let Manolo Saiz know that he is not welcome in cycling. John Lelangue, Phonak's manager, displayed the same courage by suspending two riders who appear to be linked to this affair, Santiago Botero and Jose Enrique Guttierez", said LeBlanc at the start of Dauphine Libere race.

He added that the future edition of Le Tour will not get under way unless UCI (the International Cycling Union) will give a final verdict by the end of the month: "Regarding Communidad Valencia, which we invited, but whose assistant sporting director Ignacio Labarta has been charged, we can withdraw the invitation. But for Manolo Saiz's Liberty Seguros team, which is a team that qualified, it's up to the UCI to sanction".

As for the future exclusion of Kazakh Alexandre Vinokourov from this year's Tour de France, he concluded: "The leader of that team, Alexandre Vinokourov is a big name, but in a case like this one, there are no longer any big names. The Tour has never needed this or that rider. It's the other way around; it's the Tour that makes them famous".