CSC team manager Bjarne Riis said yesterday he would not attend this year's Tour de France, starting tomorrow in London.

"It was an extremely difficult decision to make," the Dane said in a statement.

"However, it is my decision and I have not been pressed to make it. I feel I do not have the strength to help my riders throughout the Tour de France."

Riis, who ended Miguel Indurain's five-year reign in the world's greatest cycling race in 1996, admitted in May to using banned substances during his career. He has since been erased from the Tour's list of winners by the organisers.

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