July 16 (Bloomberg) -- Spanish rider Moises Duenas was withdrawn from the Tour de France by his team after testing positive for banned drug erythropoietin, or EPO, organizers said. He was held for questioning by French police.

Duenas, 26, tested positive after the fourth stage, a time trial in and around Cholet last week, Tour de France spokesman Matthieu Desplats said by telephone today. The rider was arrested at the team's hotel in Tarbes, France at 10 a.m. and taken to a police station for questioning, Claudio Masnata, a spokesman for his Barloworld team, said.

``The team is not involved in this affair,'' Masnata said in a telephone interview. ``We'll carry on in the Tour de France with the other seven riders.''

Duenas is the second Spaniard to be removed from the race within a week for a positive EPO test after Manuel Beltran of the Liquigas team. The results of back-up tests on both cyclists haven't been made public. Beltran was reported as saying in sports newspaper Marca on July 12 that he didn't know how he could have tested positive. Duenas couldn't be reached for comment today through team officials.

The positive tests dent the Tour de France's bid to bounce back from last year's edition in which there were five doping scandals in three weeks.

Duenas was 19th in the overall standings, the Barloworld team's top-ranked rider, when excluded before today's 11th stage, a 167.5-kilometer (104.1-mile) leg between Lannemezan and Foix. The 21-stage race ends on July 27.

He was 82nd of 178 riders in the 29.5-kilometer time trial after which he tested positive.

Roberto Heras

Duenas is from the central Spain town of Bejar, the same place as Roberto Heras who in 2006 was stripped of his record fourth Tour of Spain title after testing positive for EPO.

He joined the Brescia, Italy-based Barloworld team for this season from French squad Agritubel.

EPO stimulates the production of oxygen-carrying red blood cells in the body, helping give people who take it more stamina.

At last year's Tour, race leader Michael Rasmussen was excluded while on the verge of victory after missing doping tests, while pre-race favorite Alexandre Vinokourov tested positive for blood doping. Vinokourov's Astana team pulled out of the race, as did the Cofidis squad of Cristian Moreni when he tested positive for testosterone.

To contact the reporter on this story: Alex Duff in the Madrid newsroom at at aduff4@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: July 16, 2008 06:15 EDT