Cavendish wins stage 13 of doping-tainted Tour

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This was the second straight stage victory for Cavendish. Leading agroup sprint, the Team Columbia rider beat Australia's RobbieMcEwen by nearly two bike lengths in the hot and windy ride, withFrance's Romain Feillu third.
"The first stage win was my favorite; today's was the hardest,"Cavendish said after the 113-mile run from Narbonne to Nimes."Every win's a win."
Evans retained the overall lead by finishing alongside his mainrivals in the main pack. He leads Frank Schleck of Luxembourg byone second and Christian Vande Velde of the United States by 38.
Italy's Riccardo Ricco on Thursday became the third rider to testpositive for the banned performance enhancer EPO, prompting hisSaunier Duval team to quit the race and fire him the next day.
Saunier Duval also fired Leonardo Piepoli, an Italian who won the10th stage for "violation of the team's ethical code."
Ricco, the Giro d'Italia runner-up, won the sixth and ninth stagesand was the biggest name among the three riders ousted from thisTour.
He was held overnight by police and released under judicial watchFriday after French officials filed preliminary charges againsthim. He was ordered not to speak to anyone from his team.
"I slept in jail and then the magistrate listened to all I had tosay," Ricco told Italy's RAI state TV. "Then they searched my bagbut they didn't find anything except the usual vitamins we all use,so they decided to send me home."
French judicial officials cited him for "use of a toxic substance."Antoine Leroy, French state prosecutor for the town of Foix, saidRicco contested the claim that he had used EPO. A police search ofa hotel room where Ricco had stayed turned up medical equipment,such as syringes, catheters and medical bags, but no dopingproducts, Leroy said.