Only two legs before the finish, cycling race Giro d’Italia was stunned by yet another doping scandal to hit the sport. Last weekend, race leader Marco Pantani tested with an excessive count of red blood cells. Monday’s second test confirmed this, and Pantani was disqualified from the race. Pantani, who won both the Giro and the Tour de France last year, said that he had taken no drugs and that he was innocent. He was banned from cycling for 15 days after which a new test will be taken. This test will determine the further career of Pantani. The race was eventually won by Italian Ivan Gotti from the Stanga team in front of Paolo Savoldelli. Gotti also won the race two years ago.

The cricket World Cup is approaching the final stages in England. The match between Zimbabwe and New Zealand was abandoned due to rain, and each team got one point for the game. In Tuesday’s game, India beat Pakistan by 47 runs. Zimbabwe leads the Super Six table with five points in front of South Africa, Pakistan and Australia with four. New Zealand and India are at the bottom of the table with three and two points. The four best teams after the Super Six advance to the semifinals that are being played next weekend.

The ATP Tour in tennis also moved to England this week for the $750,000 Stella Artois Championship at the Queen’s Club in London. This is the first tournament on grass this year, leading up to Wimbledon which starts on Jun. 21. The No. 1 ranked player in the world, Russian Yevgeny Kafelnikov lost in the second round at Queen’s to unseeded Sargis Sargsian of Armenia. Kafelnikov will lose his top ranking after the tournament is over to either Patrick Rafter from Australia or Pete Sampras from the U. S.

In Formula One racing, the Canadian Grand Prix starts this week, with the race happening on Sunday. German Mikhael Schumacher leads the season with 30 points in front of Mika Hakkinen from Finland. Eddie Irvine from Britain is number three.

In soccer news, several national teams played in Europe Wednesday night.

England only managed to draw against Bulgaria and does not look to qualify for the European Championship in Belgium and the Netherlands next summer. Greece was surprisingly upset by Latvia at home, and Switzerland and Italy drew 0-0.

In other soccer news, Italian striker Christian Vieri is expected to transfer from Lazio to Inter Milan for almost $50 million, which is the record transfer sum for a soccer player. The deal also includes Inter’s Argentine midfielder Diego Simeone joining Lazio. The price for Simeone is unknown but assumed to be around $10 million.