Cycling: Italian tour hit by leader's failed test

The credibility of cycling's Tour of Italy has taken a huge battering for the third time in four years, after it was announced that the race leader and double stage winner Stefano Garzelli had failed a drugs test.

The scandal broke late on Friday, when Garzelli – who won the Giro in 2000 and led this year's race until Saturday evening – was informed that traces of probenecid, a masking agent, had been found in his urine from a test five days before.

"I would be a complete testa di cazzo [dickhead] to take something like this that could ruin my life, my family and my career," Garzelli said in a packed press conference, looking weary but defiant, having announced he will race on until a second test result is known. "I had never heard of this drug or taken this drug. Even so, I did not want to continue, but the team has convinced me."

The 28-year-old and his team, Mapei-Quick Step, are so sure of his innocence they jointly announced they will quit cycling should the second analysis give Garzelli the thumbs down. Garzelli later backtracked slightly, saying he would take "a long break" instead.

The race is already wrapped in controversy, after another rider, Nicola Chesini, was arrested, on the same day Garzelli was informed of his positive result, for suspected participation in a drug-selling ring.

The sight of Chesini being led away by plain-clothes officers brought back memories of the San Remo drugs raids during last year's Giro, when over 200 police officers made a late-night swoop on team hotels. That in turn echoed events of two years before, when the race leader Marco Pantani left the Giro under carabinieri escort after tests revealed the 1998 Tour de France winner had excessively high red-blood cell levels.

Then the news got even worse. While the demoralised peloton were ploughing through pouring rain on Saturday, led by Garzelli, it emerged that another two riders, the Russian Faat Zakirov and Italian Roberto Sgambelluri had both failed tests for Nesp, a red blood-cell stimulant.

A third, Domenico Romano, on hearing he was wanted by police for possible connections with the suspected Chesini drugs ring, disappeared.

Mapei were happy to let a 12-man break gain enough time for Garzelli to lose the lead on Saturday. The journalists crowding around his bedraggled figure at the finish made it clear, however, that the Italian remained firmly at the heart of this latest scandal.

In classic Italian conspiracy-theory style, Mapei claim they have been victims of a plot because of their relatively clean doping record. If they are right, this would not be the first time one team has attempted to spike another's guns.

But the sound of knife-sharpening is growing louder. "In 1999 there was a meeting to discuss all this fight against doping and only one team refused to take part – Mapei," Pantani reminded reporters on Sunday. Within the next 24 hours Garzelli and Mapei will get slightly closer to the bottom of this murky matter thanks to the medical commission's final verdict. However, cycling will take much longer to recover.

Belgian Rik Verbrugghe of the Lotto team won the seventh stage yesterday from Viareggio to Lido di Camaiore in Tuscany. He broke away on the final climb and came home alone. German Jens Heppner is overall leader after finishing in the main group.