Team Liquigas has had its invitation to ride in Rund um den Henninger Turm revoked. The Italian team, which recently announced the signing of Ivan Basso for the coming season, told the race organiser that it would not sign the required Code of Ethics for the May 1 race.
"Our nine-point anti-doping programme includes a Code of Ethics for the team managers," said race organiser Bernd Moos-Achenbach on Monday. "This must be turned in by 5:00 pm [local time], Wednesday, April 30, or a team will not be allowed to start in Rund um den Henninger Turm. We had reached a financial agreement with Liquigas, but then they told us in writing that they would not sign the Code of Ethics. So in consequence we told Liquigas that its team would not be allowed to start in Frankfurt."
