Dutch to look into Ligthart's blood values

Pim Ligthart of the Netherlands was removed from the World Track Championships in Manchester and taken out of competition for two weeks after returning irregular blood values in UCI doping controls carried out on Wednesday. In the same tests, British rider Robert Hayles showed exceeding hematocrit levels and was also suspended from riding for two weeks.

Unlike the Briton, however, the 19 year-old Dutch rider did not have an overly high hematocrit. Team doctor Tjeerd de Vries told Sportwereld that "his blood values were not in order. We will have to look into what happened. Last week Pim had the intestinal flu, perhaps that played a role."

The teenager heard the bad news Wednesday morning after training. "At first I thought it was a mistake and waited for the counter-analysis," he said. "It's really rotten that I can't ride."