The Swiss cycling federation yesterday recommended that Alex Zulle, ranked number five in the world, and his Festina team-mates Armin Meier and Laurent Dufaux should be banned for eight months and fined £1,300 each for using the banned red blood cell booster erythropoietin (EPO).

They are the first cyclists to be banned for EPO use in the drugs scandal that has rocked the sport since the trio and six team-mates were thrown off the Tour de France on July 18th amid allegations of systematic use of banned drugs.

The Swiss federation let it be known that it would proceed "leniently" because all three riders had admitted using the drug and had said they regretted doing so. EPO is undetectable in the body but an admission of drug use counts as a positive test.

The world governing body, the Union Cycliste Internationale, is expected today to confirm the ban, which is not as drastic as it might appear as the three could return to racing next June and would be able to ride in the Tour de France even though they would not be race-hardened.

The Swiss federation has at least met the deadline of October 1st set by UCI for the Festina riders' national federations to announce their punishments. The French federation announced last week that it was adjourning disciplinary procedures on the five French riders in the team.

This was because the only evidence against the French Festina riders is contained in interviews conducted by police, whereas Zulle, Meier and Dufaux all told journalists that they had used EPO. The French police interviews are sub judice although, somewhat perversely, they have been leaked to the press in full.

The Swiss bans come almost three months after French customs stopped the Festina soigneur (masseur) Willy Voet and seized 250 vials of EPO and other performance-enhancing drugs.

While those who run the sport look on, the ways and values of professional cycling are undergoing deeper investigation than has been seen in any other sport.

At least 60 cyclists and support personnel from 10 teams have been questioned this year; 13 have been charged by French police and two remain in custody. The Festina inquiry alone, led by the magistrate Patrick Keil, has sparked off half a dozen other police investigations in France, covering seven leading teams.

Squads now enter France in a state of paranoia because local police and customs have taken to searching team trucks and cars in the hope that they will be the next officials to make a big catch. The manager of the US Postal Service team, for example, has said that his men will leave behind every legitimate medical product they possess when they travel to Sunday's Paris-Tours World Cup race.

Oddly, the Lille inquiry members have said they are not interested in exposing riders; their target is those who supply the drugs. A 1989 French law, making it a criminal offence to supply drugs at sports events, means they are uniquely well placed to do this.

It was also reported this week that Belgian police have been investigating the country's top team, Lotto, since December 1997. Banned drugs including EPO were said to have been found, in quantities so large that it has taken nine months to analyse the haul.

The Festina investigation is mirrored in another great cycling country, Italy, where two probes are under way. One follows a raid by the national drugs squad on the hotel of the MG Maglificio Technogym team during last year's Tour of Italy.

That team has since been disbanded but last week its former members were questioned. They include the best one-day Classic rider, Michele Bartoli, who won last year's World Cup and is a hot favourite for the World Road Race Championship in Maastricht on Sunday week.

The other Italian inquiry has developed out of the investigation into drug allegations in football there. Again, pharmacies are the focus of interest: in Italy EPO is available on prescription and outsells antibiotics, three times as much as is needed for legitimate medical reasons such as anaemia treatment in kidney patients.

That inquiry is focused on two pharmacies, one just over the Swiss border in Lugano and the other in Bologna. The premises of cycling's three top trainers, Michele Ferrari, Luigi Cecchini and Daniele Tarsi, have all been searched after their names were found on prescriptions.

Since the original Festina seizure on July 8th, revelations have come almost daily and they show no sign of stopping. There is speculation in France that the magistrates want their inquiry to culminate in a super-trial, where their findings would be made public in full.

Laurent Jalabert will not take part in next month's world championships, Spanish cycling team ONCE-Deutsche Bank said last night.

The French world number one said in a statement issued by the ONCE team: "I'm not in the best physical or psychological condition after being affected by bronchitis during the Tour of Spain. I'm not in the best shape to wear the colours of my country."

The rider had been threatened with expulsion from the world championships by the International Cycling Union (UCI) over comments comparing cycling's world governing body to "vampires" and "dictators" over their treatment of doping issues.