Tour de France star protests innocence

Alexandre Vinokourov is protesting his innocence after testing positive positive for an illegal blood transfusion.

The 33-year-old Kazakh rider, whose team Astana immediately pulled out of the prestigious race, is facing a two-year ban from the sport if his B sample also comes back positive.

Reports claims the pre-race favourite had two different kinds of blood globules, which indicates he has had a transfusion from someone of a compatible group.

But Vinokourov has insisted he has done nothing wrong, telling reporters: "It's a mistake. I never doped, that's not the way I see my profession.

"I think it's a mistake in part due to my crash. I have spoken to the team doctors who had a hypothesis that there was an enormous amount of blood in my thighs, which could have led to my positive test."

Cyclists frustrated at the sport's recent doping scandals staged a protest at the start of the 16th stage, the last in the Pyrenees.

Vinokourov, who has also claimed he and his team have been victimised, added: "It's been going on for months and today they're managing to demolish me.

"The setting-up of our team made a lot of people jealous and now we're paying the price."

"It's a shame to leave the Tour this way, but I don't want to waste time in proving my innocence."

Vinokourov posted the positive test after claiming a remarkable victory in Saturday's time trial (Stage 13 of the 2007 Tour) in Albi.

With Tour leader Michael Rasmussen also embroiled in a fresh doping row, race director Christian Prudhomme has urged riders to stay clean for the good of the sport.

Rasmussen is accused of failing to inform drug testers of his whereabouts on four separate occasions.

Failure to do so three times constitutes a positive test under International Cycling Union (UCI) rules and should bring about a two-year suspension.

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