Sporting Digest: Cycling

Jan Ullrich is to sue the magazine that alleged that his team, Telekom, was engaged in systematic doping. Ullrich, who won the Tour de France in 1997, was planning to take legal action against Germany's Der Spiegel for defamation and loss of earnings.

The magistrate investigating the Tour de France drugs scandal has cleared Daniel Baal, the French Cycling Federation president, and his closest aide, Roger Legeay, of all charges in the case. They had been charged in April with "helping and easing the use and administration of illegal substances". However, the charges were dropped because of "insufficient evidence".