DI LUCA THREATENS LEGAL ACTION OVER PROTOUR

Deposed ProTour leader Danilo Di Luca has threatened to take legal action over his loss of his first place in cycling?s season-long competition.

Di Luca was excluded from the ProTour on Thursday after he was suspended for three months for links to a previously banned sports doctor.

In an interview with Italian daily La Gazzetta dello Sport, Di Luca has said he is ?even more determined? to appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport over the suspension and described his loss of the ProTour title as a ?further act of injustice.?

Di Luca said he would be suing for damages and that his lawyer had sent the UCI a letter explaining that his suspension was not for doping and that the doctor in question had a licence to work in sport.

?But it wasn?t any use. The UCI should have looked at the case on its merits.?

Prior to his exclusion Di Luca had a 15 point advantage over Cadel Evans, with just one race remaining, the Tour of Lombardy. Only Spaniard Alejandro Valverde now has a chance of beating Evans to the ProTour winner?s title.

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Di Luca excluded from ProTour