A top International Olympic Committee official has suggested dropping cycling from the Olympics after two more cases of doping during the Tour de France were exposed.
Stage winners Leonardo Piepoli of Italy and Stefan Schumacher of Germany tested positive for doping from blood samples taken during this year's Tour, officials announced on Monday.
The pair became the second and third riders to test positive for CERA, an advanced version of the blood booster EPO.
Italian cyclist Riccardo Ricco has already admitted to CERA use.
"This is dramatic because it shows that cycling is far away from achieving a change of consciousness," IOC vice president Thomas Bach said in Tuesday's edition in the Frankfurter Allgemeine newspaper.
"The stupid boldness apparently is continuing."
If the B samples confirm the original findings, cycling will have lost all credibility, he said.
"We have to ask ourselves whether it is not the time to order a pause for thought (from the Olympics) for cycling," Bach told the newspaper.
A secretary at his office in Germany said Bach was travelling today and could not be immediately reached.
