Facing further investigations into his involvement with the doping ring, team Discovery asked him to stop racing late in April.

While the cyclists were named and pursued by the governing bodies of cycling, none of the football players were named or punished for their involvement in the doping ring.

By contrast, not a single soccer player involved in the doping ring was named, and to this day, all remain unpunished.

In February 2011, it was reported that a pro cyclist had tipped off police about a doping ring.

Before this year's Tour, nearly 60 cyclists were implicated in a major doping ring in Spain.

Spanish law enforcement has linked more than 100 riders to the doping ring, and International Cycling Union officials have been pushing to pursue its own cases against those riders.

In December 2010, Dominguez was arrested for her connection in a doping ring as part of Operación Galgo.

The race began Saturday without its defending champion, Ivan Basso, who admitted involvement in the Spanish doping ring.

In 2009 he was also questioned in the Humanplasma doping scandal, a suspected doping ring connected to Austrian manager Stefan Matschiner.

On the eve of the Tour, nine riders, including three favorites, were disqualified for being implicated, or for their teams' being implicated, in a doping ring in Spain.