Cyclist's wife placed under investigation

The wife of Raimondas Rumsas, the Lithuanian cyclist who finished third in the Tour de France, was officially placed under investigation today, two days after being caught with suspicious drugs.

Edita Rumsas was put under formal investigation – one step short of being charged – for supplying doping products, prosecutors said.

The probe did not specify for whom the products were intended.

Rumsas’ wife was stopped by customs on Sunday en route to Italy.

A police spokesman in Lyon said “an enormous amount of products” were seized from her car, including the injectable form of the performance enhancing substance EPO. Use of EPO is banned in sports.

Her husband said in a newspaper interview published today that he did not take any banned substances and that drugs found in his wife’s possession after the race were medicines for his mother-in-law.

“I have never taken anything. My Tour is clean,” Rumsas, who rode for Italy’s Lampre team, told the Italian Gazzetta dello Sport.

Rumsas was suspended by Lampre yesterday pending the results of the investigation.

The Tour ended on Sunday on the Champs-Elysees in Paris. It was won for the fourth time in a row by American Lance Armstrong.

Tour de France Director Jean-Marie Leblanc was questioned yesterday by police about drug tests conducted during the competition, deputy Tour director Daniel Baal said.

Enrico Carpani, spokesman for world cycling’s governing body, the UCI, said today that all Rumsas’ test results for the Tour were negative.

Tour officials are extremely concerned about possible doping.

They have worked for four years to rebuild the reputation of the world’s top cycling event after the 1998 race was nearly derailed by a doping scandal.

That year, the Festina team’s physiotherapist was caught at the French-Belgian border with a stash of illicit products, including EPO.

Festina was expelled, and the incident opened the eyes of the cycling world to the extent of the problem, born out in several trials.