Spanish rider Gil excluded from Tour of Spain

MALAGA, Spain, Aug 25 (Reuters) Spaniard Koldo Gil has been excluded by his team from taking part in the forthcoming Tour of Spain because of any possible implication in the 'Operacion Puerto' anti-doping probe.

Gil, who rides for Spanish ProTour squad Saunier Duval-Prodir, appears on a list of riders allegedly involved in the investigation.

After the publication of a first list of possibly implicated riders in late June, a revised list was circulated by cycling's governing body (UCI) this week among the 21 teams starting the August 26-September 17 race.

''We have received no communique from the UCI preventing Gil from starting,'' team manager Joxean Fernandez Matxin told Spanish sports daily, AS.

''In fact, he's not officially implicated, but we don't want to take any risks that he'll have to stop racing because of a problem which is not really ours.

''This all happened when he was racing for another team, Liberty Seguros.'' POSSIBLE IMPLICATION Before this year's Tour de France, top riders Jan Ullrich of Germany, Francisco Mancebo of Spain and Ivan Basso of Italy were excluded by their teams from the race because of their possible implication in Operacion Puerto.

The Spanish anti-doping investigation came to light when the Civil Guard raided addresses in Madrid and Zaragoza in May and found large quantities of anabolic steroids and other banned products and equipment used for blood transfusions as well as over 100 bags of frozen blood.

Spanish squad Comunidad Valenciana were told last month by Tour of Spain organisers their invitation to take part had been withdrawn because 17 individuals connected with the team were linked to the anti-doping investigation.

Last year's winner of the Tour of Spain, Spaniard Roberto Heras, was stripped of a record fourth crown when he tested positive for the banned blood booster erythropoietin (EPO) after the penultimate stage.

A winner of a stage of the 2005 Tour of Italy, after joining Saunier Duval last January, Gil's most important victory this year was in the Bicicleta Vasca stage race this June.

The 28-year-old was already in Malaga for the race start when the news broke, but his team has now replaced him with Spaniard Jose Alberto Benitez.

REUTERS PDS RS1519