LA PIERRE-SAINT-MARTIN, France (AP) — The Latest from the 10th Stage of the Tour de France (all times local):
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3:30 p.m.
Italian rider Ivan Basso will undergo surgery so doctors can examine a lesion in his left testicle that prompted his withdrawal from the Tour de France over fears he might have testicular cancer.
The Tinkoff Saxo Bank team says the 37-year-old veteran will undergo surgery in Milan on Wednesday “to clarify the nature of the problem.”
The team said Tuesday that experts indicated that Basso’s “testicular lesion” had no link to his sports activity. A day earlier, Basso announced that he had cancer in his left testicle, which had turned up after he felt pain following a crash during Stage 5.
Team spokesman Pierre Orphanidis later explained that more tests were needed to confirm whether Basso has testicular cancer, but “the probabilities are very high.”
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2:35 p.m.
Astana rider Lars Boom, who won a muddy, scrappy stage over cobblestones in last year’s Tour de France, has dropped out of this year’s race because of a high fever.
Race organizers say the 29-year-old Dutchman has had a high fever for the last two days.
Boom had been at the center of controversy before the start. The Movement for Credible Cycling, which applies stricter anti-doping measures than cycling’s governing body or the World Anti-Doping Agency, said it had temporarily suspended Astana after pre-race tests showed Boom had an abnormally low cortisol level. Such low readings can indicate cortisone doping but is not conclusive proof of doping.
Boom won Stage 5 in last year’s Tour, the same day that 2013 Tour winner Chris Froome crashed out of the race. Astana rider Vincenzo Nibali went on to win the 2014 Tour.
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2:10 p.m.
Chris Froome, the 2013 Tour de France winner, has come under renewed scrutiny about the exceptional power he applies to his pedals.
Speaking to reporters, Sky Team general manager Dave Brailsford said the British squad believes “someone has hacked into our training data and got Chris’ files.”
Riders have power meters that measure how much power they produce, their heart rates, and other data that teams use to analyze their performances.
Most riders, including at Sky, don’t tend to make the data public. Brailsford’s fear is that critics who suspect Froome of doping — something he’s always adamantly denied — may try to interpret the readings to back up their claims.
A video briefly posted online late Monday showed what appeared to be second-by-second readings of the power that Froome produced on his winning climb of Mont Ventoux in 2013.
Froome has never tested positive in a sport long plagued by drug cheats.
Brailsford brushed off the speculation about his star rider.
“It’s part of the game, isn’t it?” Brailsford said. “If he does well (on Tuesday), the rest of the Tour, it’s ‘How do you know he’s not doping?'”
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12:38 p.m.
Chris Froome is wearing the race leader’s yellow jersey as the Tour de France pack has set off for the first of three days of tough climbs in the Pyrenees.
The Kenya-born Briton has a 12-second lead over Tejay van Garderen in what’s expected to be a shakeout among the top contenders over the 167-kilometer (104-mile) trek from southwestern Tarbes to La Pierre-Saint-Martin — the first time the 112-year-old race has visited the mountain resort.
Tuesday’s 10th stage takes riders along a rolling, hilly course until the big final climb, one of the hardest in pro cycling. Mountain-climbing specialists, including two-time Tour winner Alberto Contador, who is 1 minute, 3 seconds behind Froome in fifth, and Nairo Quintana, in ninth, will be looking for chances to wrest Froome’s yellow jersey.
Many French flags are lining the course route for France’s Bastille Day national holiday.
