(Reuters)
Updated: 2007-08-09 02:23

MADRID - Tour de France winner Alberto Contador was banned from the Hamburg Cyclassics event on August 19 because of his connection with the Operation Puerto blood doping scandal in Spain involving doctor Eufemiano Fuentes.

"Our basic position is that we don't want to have any riders in the Hamburg race who are on the Fuentes list," Frank Bertling, managing director of the event, was quoted as saying by the German news agency SID.

Denmark's Michael Rasmussen, who was sacked by his team Rabobank and thrown out of the Tour de France last month while leading the race for lying to the team about his training whereabouts, has also been barred from the 229-km race. Rasmussen has denied any wrongdoing.

Spanish media said on Wednesday that Contador would read a prepared statement at the Spanish Sports Council on Friday at 1000 GMT.

They said he would be assisted by Discovery Channel team director Johan Bruyneel but would not answer questions at a news conference.

The Spaniard won a Tour marred by a number of doping scandals last month.

Last year, Contador was implicated in Operation Puerto but was cleared by the International Cycling Union (UCI) and has said he is ready to give a sample of his DNA to prove his innocence.