bicycle.net -- cycling news, product reviews, original essays, podcasts & video :: Interbike & UCI World Road Race Championships Varese

FOIX, France, July 16, 2008 (AFP) - British-registered Tour de France team Barloworld lost their fourth rider from the race Wednesday after Colombian Felix Cardenas pulled out during the 11th stage with a leg injury.

Earlier in the stage Italian Paolo Longo crashed out. According to official race radio he sustained a fractured collarbone in a crash which left him in a ditch at the side of the road near the 50km mark.

Barloworld are now down to five riders, having lost Colombian climber Mauricio Soler - the reigning ‘King of the Mountains’ - earlier in the race due to a fractured wrist.

On Wednesday, Spaniard Moises Duenas was kicked off the race by his team following the news of a positive test for the banned blood booster EPO (erythropoietin).

Cardenas is a former stage winner on the Tour de France and the Tour of Spain.