CHARLEVILLE-MEZIERES, France —Spanish team Kelme have been banned from this year’s Tour de France after revelations by their former rider Jose Manzano that he had been forced to take doping products.

Manzano told Spanish sports newspaper As this week he had been obliged to take doping substances that twice put his life in danger.

“We know a little bit more about it now and we decided it was not possible to let the Kelme team take part in our races, including the Tour,” Tour chief Jean-Marie Leblanc told Reuters on Friday.

“Even if we’re talking about an isolated case, it is obvious, given the list of products taken, that he cannot have acted on his own.

“He has obviously been helped by his team director or his team doctor,” Leblanc said.