Tour de France director Christian Prudhomme said it would be "shocking" if Bjarne Riis, who has admitted doping when he won the 1996 Tour de France, was involved in this year's race as CSC's sporting director.

Riis did not include Ivan Basso at the start of the 2006 Tour de France because of suspicions hanging over the Italian rider in the wake of the Operación Puerto blood-doping scandal.

"We have the right to challenge whichever rider or team official we want to," Prudhomme told AFP. "We are speaking with teams and sponsors, but at this time, it would be shocking to have Riis included in the Tour de France.

"It would be logical that Riis applies to himself the same treatment that he applied to Ivan Basso last year."

Germans task working group with doping fight
The German minister of sport announced on Wednesday the formation of a special working group to combat doping in sport after a wave of confessions that have rocked German cycling.

Seven cyclists from the old Telekom team, now known as T-Mobile, including Erik Zabel and Bjarne Riis, winner of the 1996 Tour de France, have disclosed in the last week they took the banned blood-booster EPO (erythropoietin).

And the German government is now examining proposals to forbid the importation of medicines intended for doping offenses.

"Doping destroys the credibility and image of sport," said Wolfgang Schaeuble. "Its credibility, its function as a provider of role models and its approval by the public are the benchmarks by which it is judged."

The German state is the main shareholder in Deutsche Telekom, which sponsors the cycling team. Freiburg University's private hospital, where two doctors were sacked after it emerged they supplied EPO to cyclists, is also publicly financed.

The main German sports confederations said Tuesday they were in favor of laws being introduced in the fight against doping.

In recent years Spain and Italy have followed in the footsteps of France in introducing anti-doping laws.

France made doping, and activities linked with doping - such as the importation and administration of banned substances - a criminal activity in the wake of the Festina drugs scandal at the 1998 Tour de France.

IOC sets up probe into German doping
Olympic chiefs on Wednesday set up a probe into possible doping offenses in previous Olympic Games following recent revelations by ex-members of the German Telekom cycling team.

The International Olympic Committee said in a statement that the disciplinary commission would also examine the role of medical experts at the University of Freiburg in Germany, who have been implicated in the ongoing cycling doping scandals.

"The IOC finds the revelations in recent days disappointing and concerning, and is therefore determined to look into the matter and any possible impact it might have had on the Olympic Games," it added. The fight against doping is a top priority for the IOC.”

Denmark's Bjarne Riis, the 1996 Tour de France winner, admitted on Friday he had used EPO while at Telekom.

Several of Riis's former Telekom teammates have also confessed to using banned substances, including one of the top cyclists of the past 15 years, Erik Zabel of Germany.