Police question Italian cyclist after drugs find

French police have taken Italian rider Dario Frigo in for questioning after finding performance-enhancing drugs in a car driven by his wife at the Tour de France, his team said yesterday.

A police source said Frigo, 31, had been detained before yesterday's 11th stage of the race in the French Alps.

The source said the rider's wife had been arrested by French customs on Monday near the French Alps town of Albertville after some 10 vials were found in the boot of her car.

The vials were being analysed at a laboratory near Lyon. A source close to the investigation said Frigo's wife, Susanna, had admitted the drugs were for her husband.

The couple were to be presented yesterday to a judge in Albertville who was expected to place them under judicial supervision.

A spokesman for Frigo's Fassa Bortolo team confirmed the arrest, saying: "The gendarmes came at 7.30 a.m., arrested him and held him for questioning. It is a case which concerns only Dario Frigo and not the team."