Barloworld have been swift to distance themselves from the positive EPO test returned by Moises Duenas Nevado.

Duenas Nevado, 27, has been withdrawn from the Tour de France by his team following raids by French police on their hotel in Tarbes.

The French anti-doping agency reported that the rider's A sample related to the fourth stage of the race, the Cholet time-trial on July 8.

"I'm shocked," Barloworld team manager Claudio Corti said.

"I want to find out more about what has happened before going into detail and taking further action.

"However the one thing I will say is that the team is not involved in this story at all.

"We'll take severe action against anyone who damages our credibility and the image of our team."

Duenas Nevado finished 82nd in the stage in question.

At the time of his withdrawal, he was 19th, the highest-placed Barloworld rider in the overall classification.

He had been given more of a free reign after his team leader, Juan Mauricio Soler, last year's King of the Mountains, withdrew with a wrist injury on stage five.

Duenas Nevado was in his third Tour de France, and first with Barloworld, following two years with Agritubel.

Jerome Pineau, whose Bouygues Telecom squad are staying in the same hotel as the Barloworld team, expressed his desire for the remaining cheats in the peloton to be rooted out.

"I think that it is good for the fight against doping, that is to say that the controls work," Pineau told L'Equipe.

"Cycling does not need people like him who want to continue cycling while cheating.

"On the other hand, it's a pity for the sport because once again people are going to say that the riders are cheats.

"To clarify matters, untrustworthy riders must continue to get themselves caught."

Didier Rous, Bouygues Telecom general manager, was quick to point out that the police's raid extended only as far as the Barloworld quarters.

"We were not caught up at all in this story," said the manager of the French team.

"After the testing of the Spanish rider, the gendarmes came and tested the Barloworld team.

"We could come and go without problem and we are not at all incriminated in this affair."

Duenas Nevado's transgression comes four days after another Spanish rider, Manuel Beltran, was found to have EPO in his system after the opening stage from Brest to Plumelec.

It seems unlikely that Barloworld will be thrown out of Tour unless they are shown to have been involved systematically.

The Amaury Sports Organisation, who run the Tour de France, chose not to remove Liquigas following Beltran's test, under new rules that came into effect in this year's event.