STRASBOURG, France, June 30 - Riders Jan Ullrich and Oscar Sevilla and team manager Rudy Pevenage are out of the Tour de France after being suspended by their T-Mobile team because their names appeared in a doping investigation in Spain.

German Ullrich, Spaniard Sevilla and Belgian Pevenage were suspended after the German team were notified by Tour organisers ASO (Amaury Sport Organisation) that the names of the three men had appeared in the anti-doping probe.

"This will change our objectives for the Tour de France. Now we will take it day by day," said T-Mobile media officer Luuc Eisenga on Friday.

"It was serious information which gave us doubts about the versions produced by Oscar, Jan and Rudy."

On Monday, 1997 Tour de France winner Ullrich and Pevenage had issued strong denials about their involvement in possibly the biggest doping scandal in cycling since the Festina affair in 1998.

Sevilla and Ullrich will be replaced in the Tour, which starts on Saturday, by German Stephan Schreck and Italian Lorenzo Bernucci.

The doping scandal erupted last month after the Spanish Civil Guard raided a number of addresses to find large quantities of anabolic steroids, laboratory equipment used for blood transfusions and more than 100 packs of frozen blood.

Doctor Eufemiano Fuentes, who has collaborated with a number of cycling teams, and Jose Luis Merino, the head of a clinical analysis laboratory, were released on bail after being questioned.

The assistant director of the Comunidad Valenciana team Jose Ignacio Labarta and the sporting director of the former Liberty Seguros team Manolo Saiz were also detained for questioning and then released.

Both men have since left their posts, while insurance giants Liberty Seguros withdrew their sponsorship of the team who have now changed their name to Astana-Wuerth.

Comunidad Valenciana have had their invitation to take part in the Tour withdrawn.

But Astana-Wuerth, Kazakhstan rider Alexandre Vinokourov's team, have been allowed to participate after appealing to the Court of Arbitration for Sport in Lausanne.