Virenque battles to rebuild reputation

Richard Virenque, a national hero in France before his fall from grace last autumn when he finally confessed to using the banned drug EPO, was unable to ride in the Tour de France this summer. But the nine-month suspension has now ended and Virenque, who had denied taking EPO for two years, wants to move on.

"It's been very difficult but I will try to use all that happened to get stronger," he said. "If I had known I would have to pay that much of course I would have thought twice.

"I watched the first day of the Tour de France this year and it made me cry, then the only stage I followed was the Alpe d'Huez. After that I kept an eye on it, that was all."

Virenque is hoping to rebuild his reputation with the Belgian team Domo-Farm Frites, with whom he has signed a three-month contract.

Lance Armstrong will end his season at the San Francisco Grand Prix on 9 September, a rare appearance in an American race by the three-times Tour de France winner. It will be the Texan's first race in the United States since April 2000.

"I'm really excited to compete on home soil," Armstrong said in Spain, where he is preparing for next week's Tour of Burgos. "I know the course is going to be really tough."

Armstrong's US Postal Service team will include his Tour de France support riders George Hincapie, Tyler Hamilton, Vyacheslav Ekimov and Steffen Kjaergaard.

In Maia yesterday, the Swiss rider Fabian Jeker won the Tour of Portugal after claiming the 14th and final stage, an individual time trial over 16.4 miles. Jeker clocked 32min 47sec over the course near Oporto. He almost caught his nearest rival, Juan Miguel Mercado, of Spain, who had started two minutes before him. The Russian Andrei Zinchenko was third yesterday but moved up to second overall as Mercado dropped to third.