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Lance Armstrong"s team-mates take doping bans

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Five of Armstrong's team-mates take reduced doping bans after giving evidence against rider

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UPDATED:

20:57 GMT, 11 October 2012

Five of Lance Armstrong's former team-mates have accepted six-month doping bans from the US Anti-Doping Agency after their evidence helped strip Armstrong of his seven career Tour de France titles.

The USADA said the bans imposed on George Hincapie, Tom Danielson, Levi Leipheimer, Christian Vande Velde and David Zabriskie were reduced because of 'substantial assistance' supplied by the riders in relation to their investigation into Armstrong.

Punished: (From top, left to right), US George Hincapie, US David Zabriskie, Belgium's Christian Vande Velde and US Levi Leipheimer

Punished: (From top, left to right), US George Hincapie, US David Zabriskie, Belgium's Christian Vande Velde and US Levi Leipheimer

A sixth former Armstrong team-mate, Canadian Michael Barry, also accepted the sanction, although Barry announced his retirement from the sport last month.

Ordinarily, the riders would have faced bans of at least two years for admitting the offences.

Shamed: Evidence is stacking up against Lance Armstrong

Shamed: Evidence is stacking up against Lance Armstrong

The bans have been back-dated to September 1, 2012 and will run through six months relating to their participation in any activity or competition organised by any signatory to the World Anti-Doping Code.

Each rider also had his competitive results erased for the specified period in which they acknowledged doping had taken place, and all but Danielson admitted they had withdrawn from the London 2012 Olympics as a part of the deal.

Tour de France 2012: Ryder Hesjedal pulls out

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Heartbreak for Hesjedal as Giro d'Italia winner pulls out of Tour

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UPDATED:

11:28 GMT, 7 July 2012

Giro d'Italia champion Ryder Hesjedal abandoned the Tour de France ahead of stage seven on Saturday.

The Canadian had been tipped as a contender for the yellow jersey, but sustained what his Garmin-Sharp team described as 'a massive haematoma on his left hip and leg' on stage six and opted out of the race ahead of the 199-kilometre route from Tomblaine to La Planche des Belles Filles.

Garmin-Sharp directeur sportif Jonathan Vaughters wrote on Twitter: 'Hesjedal is not going to start. Sad, but he'll be back.'

Heartbreak: Hesjedal (centre) has had to pull out of the Tour

Heartbreak: Hesjedal (centre) has had to pull out of the Tour

Hesjedal was involved in a major collision around 26km from the end of Friday's stage to Metz, losing more than 13 minutes as a result.

It was a crash his British team-mate David Millar, riding in his 11th Tour, described as one of the scariest of his career.

Almost all of the Garmin-Sharp team were involved in the collision, with Tom Danielson abandoning as a result of the incident after dislocating his shoulder and suffering numerous other injuries.

Hesjedal had been the best placed Garmin-Sharp rider at the start of the day in 108th and his absence meant the team were set to revise their goals, with Irishman Dan Martin and Millar poised to be given opportunities to go for stage wins.

Martin, nephew of 1987 Tour winner
Stephen Roche, is a climber and the 5.9km, category one ascent to the
finish today was set to be his first chance, while the polka dot King of
the Mountains jersey could also be a target.

Garmin-Sharp were reduced to a team of six when South Africa champion Robbie Hunter also abandoned.

In contention: Hesjedal had been among the favourites for the yellow jersey

In contention: Hesjedal had been among the favourites for the yellow jersey

Hunter wrote on Twitter: 'Got stress fractures in a vertebrae. Been trying to ride through the pain but woke up this am & I'm battling to walk never mind ride.at this point I gotta worry about my health!'

Hesjedal and Hunter were among eight riders who finished on Friday, but did not start on Saturday, taking the total number of withdrawals to 16 after 198 riders began last Saturday in Liege.

Spanish team Movistar now have five riders after two more abandoned, two withdrew from Dutch squad Rabobank, Oscar Freire from Katusha quit, along with Amets Txurreuka (Euskaltel-Euskadi) and Hubert Dupont (Ag2r La Mondiale).

After 40km a seven-man escape group had established an advantage of almost six minutes.

The best-placed rider in the breakaway was Christophe Riblon (Ag2r La Mondiale), who began the day in 55th place, five minutes four seconds behind race leader Fabian Cancellara (RadioShack-Nissan).

Riblon was accompanied by Chris Anker Sorensen (Saxo Bank-Tinkoff), Martin Velits (Omega Pharma-QuickStep), Michael Albasini (Orica-GreenEdge), Cyril Gautier (Europcar), Dmitriy Fofonov (Astana) and Luis-Leon Sanchez (Rabobank).