Gerolsteiner reactions

By Susan Westemeyer

Team Gerolsteiner has pulled out of the Giro di Lombardia this weekend, making last Sunday's Paris-Tours its final race ever.

"The withdrawal of Gerolsteiner from the Giro of Lombardia is because the team strictly follows the internal regulations of the MPCC," team spokesman Jörg Grünefeld told Cyclingnews. Those regulations call for an "automatic suspension of the whole team for eight days when there are two positive tests results within 12 months."

One of Kohl's Gerolsteiner teammates, Markus Fothen, told the dpa agency that he was "speechless" on hearing the news. Especially since Kohl, "had tears in his eyes during the Tour as we all raged against the dopers," because "they are destroying everything."

Fothen said that he was worried about the sport's future, saying, "We still haven't reached the bottom." The public opinion about cycling is such now that he did not wear clothes with the team name on it when he he traveled to Paris-Tours last weekend because, "I wanted to avoid the expected comments."