CYCLING: The former Tour de France winner Jan Ullrich has been suspended for six months after testing positive for amphetamines in June, the German Cycling Federation (BDR) said yesterday. The disciplinary committee of the BDR ruled Ullrich had broken the rules and agreed on the six-month racing ban, committee chairman Peter Barth said.

Ullrich, who rides for the Deutsche Telekom team, tested positive on June 12th while recovering from a knee operation. He accepted the results of the test, saying he had taken pills while out the night before.

The 28-year-old German, who won the Tour de France in 1997, will be able to resume competing from March 23rd next year. The ban spans eight months but includes November and December, during which no major events are staged.

Ullrich was fined 2,000 Swiss francs by the BDR and is also under investigation by public prosecutors in Munich after his public confession that he had consumed an illegal drug in during a visit to a nightclub.

The first German to win the Tour, the world's greatest cycle race, Ullrich has been triple Tour-winner Lance Armstrong's only serious rival in recent years. He pulled out of this year's race after undergoing knee surgery in May.

The East German-born cyclist has not been able to compete since last January because of his troublesome knee and has become increasingly frustrated after trying to return to full training several times this year.

Last month Ullrich was banned from driving for a year after he knocked over a rack and some bikes with his Porsche outside a hotel in southern Germany in the early hours of May 1st. He fled the scene and was later found to have had three times the permitted level of alcohol in his blood.

Team Telekom boss Walter Godefroot raised concerns that Ullrich might never come back by saying on Monday that he did not know whether the rider wanted to pursue his career.

But Ullrich's manager Wolfgang Strohband said he was confident the troubled German, who is currently on holiday in the United States with his girlfriend, Gaby, would bounce back.

"I expected this decision," Strohband said of the ban. "I am absolutely convinced that Jan will be back next season."