BRUSSELS, Belgium – Third-place Tour de France finisher Bernhard Kohl will be dropped from the Silence-Lotto team after becoming the latest cyclist caught using the new blood booster CERA.

Kohl, a climbing specialist, rode for Gerolsteiner this season but has since signed with Silence-Lotto through 2011. The Belgian team had hoped he would be a key support rider for Cadel Evans as the Australian challenges for the Tour victory next year.

Silence-Lotto said in a statement it would take “the necessary legal steps to immediately stop the cooperation with Kohl.”

“I'd much rather finish fourth in an honest way than win with the least bit of suspicion,” team chief Marc Coucke told VRT network.

“Fortunately it happened now,” he said, noting that Kohl had yet to ride for the team.

With Tour runner-up Evans and Kohl, Silence-Lotto would have had the strongest lineup to challenge the Astana team of Alberto Contador and Lance Armstrong during the three-week race next July.

After this year's Tour, Kohl became one of the most sought-after riders along with teammate Stefan Schumacher. Both tested positive for CERA in rechecks of the samples by the French anti-doping agency.

“We had to fight a lot of other teams and it cost a lot of energy,” Silence-Lotto team manager Marc Sergeant told Het Laatste Nieuws.

Kohl finished third at this year's Tour behind Carlos Sastre and Evans in the second-tightest podium finish in the 105-year-old race. The Gerolsteiner rider also secured the polka-dot jersey as the best rider in the mountains.

The French Anti-Doping Agency said Tuesday it informed cycling's governing body, the UCI, of Kohl's positive test.

Kohl, 26, risks a two-year suspension and could lose his podium spot to fourth-place Denis Menchov of Russia.

The new blood tests for CERA have also exposed Italian cyclists Riccardo Ricco and Leonardo Piepoli. Ricco was banned for two years earlier this month by the Italian Olympic committee after admitting to doping during the Tour.

In the wake of the latest doping case, team Gerolsteiner pulled out of the Tour of Lombardy, the season-ending classic in northern Italy. Gerolsteiner had already announced it would withdraw from cycling sponsorship earlier this year.

“The biggest shame is that the illusion is now gone that the new generation in cycling had taken a vow against doping and that it was restricted to the 35-plus riders,” Coucke said.