Dutch cyclist Thomas Dekker has failed a drugs test for the performance-improving hormone erythropoietin and been scrapped from his team for this year’s Tour de France race.

The test relates to a urine sample given in December 2007. Dekker was part of the Rabobank cycling team at the time, but was sacked last year. The reason was never made clear, Elsevier.nl reports.
The tests used in 2007 were not advanced enough to trace the drug, known as epo, but current methods have revealed traces in a urine sample given then, Elsevier says.
Dekker, who has since raced for the Belgian Silence-Lotto squad, has had a mixed season so far.