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Mancebo reportedly retiring from sport
Francisco Mancebo has reportedly decided to retire from cycling following his exclusion from the Tour de France by his Ag2r team Friday.
A day before the start of the 93rd edition the 30-year-old Spaniard was suspended by his French outfit after he was named on a list of riders suspected of being involved in a blood doping network in Spain.
The Tour will also be missing Germany's 1997 Tour winner Jan Ullrich, his teammate at T-Mobile Oscar Sevilla, and recent Tour of Italy winner Ivan Basso, of CSC - all of whom are also implicated in what is being dubbed the biggest doping scandal to hit the country.
Mancebo had proclaimed his innocence to his team on Thursday, but his suspension by manager Vincent Lavenu on Friday proved decisive.
"At the breakfast table I could feel what was in store," said Lavenu. "Francisco told me, 'I'm leaving. I'm hanging up my bike.'"
Mancebo finished fourth overall on the Tour last year behind Ullrich, Basso and Tour winner Lance Armstrong.
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