AURILLAC, France—The Tour de France heads for the Pyrenees on Saturday without Manuel Beltran after the Spanish rider was kicked out for failing a dope test.
The Liquigas rider, who had been 26th overall, was withdrawn by his team on Friday after testing positive for erythropoietin (EPO) and will not start the 172.5km(107mile) eighth stage from Figeac to Toulouse.
"We'll be a bit sad of course at the start but it's alright, it shows that the system is working and that the cheats are being caught," Team Garmin-Chipotle manager Jonathan Vaughters told Reuters after the first positive test of this year's Tour.
Four minor climbs are on the menu for the first part of the ride, in which breakaways by second-string riders are likely to flourish.
Most of the leading riders will be keen to spare some energy on the day before the first high mountain stage of the three-week race.
"The big guns will stay nice and cosy in the bunch as there will be two category-one passes the next day," France's Charly Mottet, who finished fourth in the Tour in 1987 and 1991, told Reuters.
"Then you have two 'bumps' in the final stages which could favour a break."
Mottet predicted a reaction from French riders, who had a nightmarish ride on Friday, with three of them pulling out.
"After today's rout, they will attack for sure," he said.
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