June 30, 2007 — Italy’s , Alessandro Petacchi (Milram) has been selected to his team’s line-up for the Tour de France despite being suspended by the team only on Thursday according to Yahoo Eurosport.

As reported his suspension was not official and stems from Petacchi’s “non-negative” test for asthma medication, salbutamol, during the 2007 Giro. Although he suffers from asthma and has a therapeutic use exemption (TUE) for salbutamol issued by the UCI, he tested at 1,320 nanograms millilitre of urine after the 11th stage of the Giro.

This is above the ceiling of 1,000 nanograms of salbutamol per millilitre of urine as established by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA). Petacchi will speak before the Italian Olympic committee (CONI) Monday, with hopes of having them dropping the case.

Milram also named six-time green jersey winner Erik Zabel, 37, to its line-up. Other Milram riders on their TdF team include Ralf Grabsch, Marcel Sieberg, Christian Knees, and Enrico Poitschke, Alberto Ongarato, Alessandro Cortinovis, and Brett Lancaster.

The team roster of 27 is dominated by cyclists from Germany or Italy with Australian Lancaster being an exception. Vittorio Algeri and Antonio Bevilacqua will be the directeurs sportif.