Germany's Jan Ullrich, winner of the Tour de France in 1997, announced yesterday that he had pulled out of this year's event. "I am sorry, I must pull out. I won't be competing in the Tour of France," said the 25-year-old Telekom rider, who had to quit the Tour of Switzerland with an injured knee last week.

Ullrich had hoped to compete in the Tour, but despite starting light training on roller-blades, his doctors were not optimistic about his chances of competing.

"Every training session I miss reduces my chances of competing," said Ullrich, who was also runnerup in 1996 and 1998.

"I'm really sorry. Questions of my future worry me. Morale is very low and my worry is what will my fans think of me after this?"

His decision to pull out of the Tour de France means that a host of top names, including the last three winners of the Tour, will not be competing in this year's event.

He joins 1998 champion Marco Pantani and 1996's Danish winner Bjarne Riis on the sidelines. Riis pulled out with a fractured arm Saturday and Pantani has said he will not compete - he was recently expelled from the Tour of Italy for failing a blood test.

On Wednesday organisers of the Tour said three French cyclists Richard Virenque (runner-up to Ullrich in 1997 and four times King of the Mountains), Philippe Gaumont and Laurent Roux would not be welcome at this year's event.

They also expelled the entire Dutch team TVM, including their lead rider Jeroen Blijlevens. On Friday, they added Italian team Vini Caldirola to the banned list after one of their riders failed a blood test leading to his exclusion from the Tour of Switzerland.

France's world number one Laurent Jalabert has also said he will not compete in protest at the ban by Tour chiefs on his ONCE team's director Manolo Saiz.

Tour organisers have dubbed this years's event the "Tour of Redemption" following the drugs scandal that blighted last year's race and have adopted a tough line as they bid to restore faith in France's most famous sporting event.