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LONDON, July 27 (Reuters) - Confirmation of a positive drugs test for Tour de France winner Floyd Landis on Thursday is the final blow for a race beset by doping problems before it had even started.
Landis's main rivals for the title, Jan Ullrich of Germany and Ivan Basso of Italy, were withdrawn immediately before the start of the Tour in Strasbourg after they were linked to a Spanish doping investigation.
Ullrich, the 1997 champion, and Giro d'Italia winner Basso both denied any involvement. Ullrich was subsequently sacked by his T-Mobile team.
T-Mobile also suspended his team mate Oscar Sevilla and sporting director Rudy Pevenage.
The entire Astana-Wuerth were withdrawn after five of their riders were found on a list provided by the Spanish police.
As a result the peleton was cut from 21 to 20 teams and from 189 to 176 riders.
The investigation came to light in May when the Spanish Civil Guard raided addresses in Madrid and Zaragoza and found anabolic steroids, equipment used for blood tranfusions and more than 100 bags of frozen blood.