Italy's Cristian Moreni has tested positive for the male sex hormone testosterone at the Tour de France, according to the online edition of French sports daily L'Equipe.
Ex-Italian road race champion Moreni, 34, is the second rider after Alexandre Vinokourov of Kazakhstan to fail a dope test.
Vinokourov's team was ejected from the race Tuesday after the 33-year-old pre-race favourite tested positive for a banned blood transfusion, throwing the cycling world into renewed turmoil over the use of performance-enhancing drugs.
With race leader Michael Rasmussen of Denmark riding under a cloud after skipping doping tests before the race, there were calls for the world road race championships in Germany later this year to be called off.
But German Cycling Federation chief Rudolf Scharping on Wednesday rejected the call, saying "the cycling world is like a big washing machine and some stains are more stubborn than others. We have to keep doing the washing rather than stopping races. The Vinokourov case shows that testing is working".
Speaking to the France Presse news agency under condition of anonymity, a member of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) said cycling risked being dropped from future Olympics games, "at least starting from 2016".
An Italian member of the IOC's executive board, Mario Pescante, said there was "no juridical basis" for such a move.
"There are 116 members of the IOC and some of them sometimes say silly things," he said.
Cycling has been racked by drug scandals in recent years.
