Limoges, France ? Two cyclists being investigated in doping cases were ejected from the Tour de France on Monday.

Tour director Jean-Marie Leblanc said Stefano Casagranda of the Saeco team and Martin Hvastija of Alessio no longer were welcome and would not start today’s ninth stage.

“We do not want the serenity of the competition disrupted by their presence,” Leblanc said.

Hvastija was 124th in the overall standings, and Casagranda 155th.

“I don’t understand such a cruel decision,” Hvastija said. He suggested that he and Casagranda were unfairly picked on because they were not top performers.

“If we looked at all the little problems that we have, half of the peloton should not restart,” he said.

Hvastija said Italian investigators bugged a conversation he had with a teammate during the 2001 Tour of Italy about a recently banned substance. He did not reveal the name of the other rider or the product, but said it legally had been used before.

He said he told his Alessio team about the “small case” before the Tour, and that they supported him. He claimed Leblanc was aware of it and “respected the decision of my director” to let him race.

Meanwhile, Tour organizers have contacted judicial officials in San Remo, Italy, about an article in the newspaper Le Monde that said one of Lance Armstrong’s U.S. Postal Service teammates — Czech Pavel Padrnos — had been summoned to appear before an Italian tribunal for allegedly taking doping substances during the 2001 Tour of Italy. Johan Bruyneel, the Postal team director, dismissed the report last week.

Before the Tour, organizers said all riders “implicated in a judicial inquiry or under police investigation” would be barred.

David Millar of Britain and Cedric Vasseur of France, two of six Cofidis team members under investigation for suspected doping, and Danilo Di Luca of Italy already have been banned from the race. Last week, Belgian Christophe Brandt was expelled.

Hendrik Redant, coach of Brandt’s Italian team Lotto-Domo, said the rider was sent home after testing positive for methadone, a drug used to help recovering heroin addicts.

Brandt suggested that a laboratory error might be to blame.

Today’s ninth stage will take riders on a 100-mile run from Saint-Leonard-de-Noblat to Gueret in France’s Massif Central area.