A French court sentenced 23 people yesterday to up to four years in prison for being involved in a drugs ring that supplied a cocktail of amphetamines known as "Belgian pot" to cyclists.

Belgian physio Freddy Sergant, who supplied the drug, was sentenced to four years in prison. He has already spent one year in custody pending the verdict by a court in the southwestern city of Bordeaux.

The affair is one of many to have rocked professional cycling, which is still dogged by doping allegations.

Last week the Tour de France was stripped of three of its biggest names after Jan Ullrich, Ivan Basso and Francisco Mancebo were implicated in a doping investigation in Spain.

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