The team's doctor Lothar Heinrich also denied the allegations

The team's doctor, Lothar Heinrich, also denied the allegations. "I can rule out that any of our riders have taken drugs," he said.The publication's claims are merely the latest to tarnish cycling. "I don't see a single proof," he said."The whole article is a conglomeration of allegations. They are insinuations and conjectures." He said he had "proof" that Der Spiegel had been engaged in "chequebook journalism", trying to "bribe" former team staffers.Kindervater said the team underwent 180 drug tests a year, 80 of them conducted by the International Cycling Union, UCI, and the rest by the team itself. It said Ullrich did not stay in the team hotel to escape possible drug tests.Jurgen Kindervater, spokesman for Deutsche Telekom AG, the team's sponsor, denied the allegations. Ullrich himself had an unusually high red blood cells count shortly after his Tour victory, Der Spiegel alleged yesterday, a claim denied by a team spokesman.Der Spiegel said its article, to be published tomorrow, was based on training documents and statements made by unnamed former Team Deutsche Telekom aides."According to former members of the team, doping is used by Team Telekom precisely as systematically and comprehensively as it is by competing teams - except that no one has been caught yet," it wrote, adding that Telekom riders used EPO, steroids and growth hormones, provided by the various support staff on the team.The paper claimed that at a one-day race shortly after he won the 1997 Tour de France, Ullrich had a red blood cell count "way over" 50, the allowed limit. The influential sports paper L'Equipe depends on and encourages that blind dedication but the credibility of cycling is so low internationally that dramatic action is probably not far off.The sport's standing will not have been enhanced by claims in a German news magazine which accuse the team of 1997 Tour de France winner, Jan Ullrich, of systematically using blood doping and other performance-enhancing drugs.

"The cyclist's routine is a very special one with the racing, the massages and the sleep," he said, "and if they are taken away to hospital or police stations it perverts the course of the race."In spite of relentless drugs scandals, last year's Tour was watched by record crowds. "Wherever I go people come up and say, 'Hold tight, M Leblanc, the Tour must go on'." He made an appeal to police and customs not to interfere while the race was in progress. However, suggestions that this year's Tour could be called off while it gets to grips with the problem or that all riders under suspicion be banned are unrealistic, partly because it would be impossible to find a sufficient number of replacement riders who have never been cast under the shadow of doubt for taking illegal substances but mainly for the obvious reason that the French public retain a devotion that supersedes all moral doubt. On Friday the Tour organiser, Jean-Marie Leblanc, ruled out any prospect of postponement because most French people wanted the race to go ahead. There have even been calls for riders to be divided between those who are prepared to declare that they use drugs and those who swear they are "clean" and agree to dope tests anywhere and at any time. What is normally a formality has become one of the greatest dilemmas in sport.

Will the Tour organisers carry out their threat and finally tell the increasing number of riders who have failed dope tests or even been under suspicion at any time in their careers that they are not wanted? Even in France, where the Tour is held in almost religious regard and protected as a national institution, there is growing pressure, at least from the uncommitted media, to clean up the sport. ON WEDNESDAY of this week final entries and the eligibility of competitors will be decided by the organisers for next month's Tour de France. However, after some deliberation the umpires gave him the benefit of the doubt and Swann made an attractive 62 before John Wood took a fine return catch.Taylor and Michael Davies resisted for half an hour before Harmison struck again, dismissing the former followed by last man Devon Malcolm and Durham celebrated, as much for getting one over on the weather as for beating Northampton.. Suddenly there was a glimmer of hope.Only Graeme Swann and Paul Taylor provided any resistance, and Durham thought they had removed the former when he had scored 32 and was snapped up off Brown in the gully by Michael Gough, who hung onto the ball just millimetres off the turf.It looked a close call but judging by the looks on Durham faces not so close that the batsman might have considered walking. Just prior to the stoppage Sales had fallen to Stephen Harmison when he looked set for a century. He picked up two wickets in three balls just before tea, ending Warren's contribution to a 133-run fourth wicket stand, then getting the verdict when Tony Penberthy's legs got in the way of another sharp delivery.Rain briefly interrupted proceedings a little later on before David Ripley lost his stumps to give Brown his second five-wicket bag of the season. But they have a potent bowling attack and this year have missed out just once on a maximum points haul.As ever, the key to Northampton's demise was left-arm paceman Simon Brown, who missed all of last season's Championship campaign.