Tour de France cyclist fails drug detection test

Alexandr Kolobnev of Russia has withdrawn from the Tour de France after failing a drug detection test.

The cyclist is the first to be accused of doping in this year's event after testing positive for the diuretic hydrochlorothiazide in the first part of a urine sample which he provided on July 6th.

In a statement by the International Cycling Union, or UCI, it claimed that although a positive in the urine sample drug detection test would not force the Russian cyclist to retire from the race, he is taking the time out to prepare his defence.

Kolobnev will now have to give a second urine sample.

"If the B-sample also tests positive, he will be fired and will have to pay five times his salary as a fine," his team Katusha said on its website.

This year's Tour de France also made the headlines over the weekend when a camera car veered into cyclists, catapulting Johnny Hoogerland into a barbed wire fence.