Team Wurth officials Manolo Saiz and Jose Ignacio Labarta, both implicated in the Spanish cycling doping scandal, were on Thursday asked to step down from their posts on the Associazione Internazionale Gruppi Sportivi Professionistici, the professional group representing teams and team staff at the UCI. Spanish cycling has been hit by the scandal which saw five people arrested last week on suspicion of involvement with blood doping.

The five arrests came after a series of raids which uncovered a blood doping network involving taking samples from riders and oxygenating the blood cells artificially before reinjecting them to boost performance. Liberty team manager Saiz and Comunidad Valenciana deputy director Jose Ignacio Labarta, among the five arrested, have been asked by the AIGCP, which represents professional cyclists, to step down until the matter has been resolved.

The teams on cycling's ProTour, including Liberty Seguros-Wurth (now Team Wurth) and Comunidad Valenciana, agreed on terms of ethical conduct which came into force on January 1 2005. They stipulate anyone guilty of doping must be sacked and anyone suspected must not be involved in races until the matter is resolved.