News Flash for June 12, 2003

Edited by Jeff Jones

Rumsas suspended after failing drug test

Lithuanian rider Raimondas Rumsas has been suspended by his Lampre team for failing a drug test during the Giro d'Italia. The rider, who finished sixth in the Giro, tested 'non-negative' to a banned substance, which according to several sources was EPO, after the sixth stage, from Maddaloni to Avezzano. The results of the counter analysis are still to be determined.

Rumsas finished third in last year's Tour de France, but his result was clouded when French customs officers found a large number of drugs, some of which were illegal, in his wife Edita's car after the end of the Tour. Edita was imprisoned in France and eventually released on bail, and neither she or her husband have been back in France since then.

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