Tour de France - Scott to keep racing

Despite huge doubts over the continued support of Saunier Duval Scott, the second sponsor of the team, will continue to support the squad managed by Mauro Gianetti.

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The doubts over the team were sparked by the positive EPO dope test carried out on team leader Riccardo Ricco and the dismmilassal of both Ricco and Leonardo Piepoli. The other riders had pleaded with all that they were not to blame.

Read the ASO statement over the Ricco scandal..

Scott Statement
"Scott think that the situation the team coped with during the Tour de France resulted from individual choices and that the team and their managers did everything they could to avoid this kind of situations.

"To leave the team and seek for other sponsorship opportunities would be the easiest thing for us to do. However, we trust the team´s young riders and staff. They do not have to pay for the mistakes made by individual riders, and this is why we´ve decided to stand by the team.

We´ll continue to support Mauro Gianetti´s men so that they can go on competing this season. We consider this tough situation as a chance to struggle against doping and we´ll ask for anti-doping tests to be stricter in the future. All the riders in the team have signed the so-called biological passport, and we believe this is great a step forward to eliminate doping from cycling.

We´ll not leave the team, as all the people in it have done an excellent job in the past years. We want the young riders of the team to be given a chance." Pascal Ducrot, Vice-President of Scott Sports, S.A."