Garmin-Sharp chief denies doping bans

Dan Martin’s Garmin-Sharp team have endured more than most in the opening week of the Tour de France but matters worsened yesterday when their team manager Jonathan Vaughters was taken to task before the stage start in Rouen about reports in a Dutch newspaper that some of his riders had received six-month bans after confessing to doping.

Vaughters stringently denied the allegations, saying he, alongside American riders Christian Vande Velde and David Zabriskie — both of whom make up his squad at the Tour — Levi Leipheimer and George Hincapie were not witnesses in USADA’s ongoing Lance Armstrong doping investigation.

The article claims that the four riders have all confessed to doping and have testified against seven-time Tour de France winner Armstrong. The paper says that they have all been given six-month bans from cycling by USADA, which will kick in at the end of the season, in exchange for their compliance. The paper also named Vaughters as a witness but stopped short of categorically stating that he had been suspended too.

The mood within the Garmin-Sharp camp was noticeably tetchy after the stage yesterday when team sprinter, Tyler Farrar crashed heavily for the third day in succession before confronting sprint rival Tom Veelers of the Argos-Shimano team outside their bus.

Farrar is just one of the team to lose time this week with Martin as well as deputy team leader Tom Danielson also coming down heavily, rendering the latter’s chance of a top place almost impossible now.

But Martin and fellow Irishman Nicolas Roche (Ag2R La Mondiale) avoided any drama and rolled over the line in 56th and 34th place respectively to retain their places on GC (87th and 21st), in the same time as stage winner Andre Greipel (Lotto Belisol), who won for the second day in-a-row.

The big German timed his effort to perfection on the tricky finish, powering ahead of Matt Goss (Orica-GreenEdge) and Juan Jose Haedo (Saxo Bank-Tinkoff) in second and third respectively. World champion Mark Cavendish (Team Sky) could only manage fifth.

Fabian Cancellara (RadioShack-Nissan) retained the overall lead by seven seconds from Bradley Wiggins (Team Sky), with defending champion Cadel Evans (BMC Racing) 17 seconds adrift in seventh place.

“That was one of the hardest sprints I’ve ever done in my career,” Greipel said.

“I don’t know how I managed to get back up to the front group because somehow I could avoid the crash of (Tyler) Farrar. And then (team-mate Greg) Henderson was waiting for me and the Lotto-Belisol train was working perfectly again.”

Farrar (Garmin-Sharp), a stage winner in 2011, fell to the ground and Peter Sagan (Liquigas-Cannondale) was among those to feel the impact of the domino effect. Sagan eventually finished 154th and Farrar 194th and last.

The day always seemed destined to end in a sprint finish, even when Jan Ghyselinck (Cofidis), who was part of the day’s four-man escape, attacked in the final kilometre.

He was eventually overhauled and Greipel was able to power away to victory, with Cavendish among those left in his wake.

Today is another flat stage for the sprinters. In all the riders tackle 207.5km from Epernay to Metz.