CSC rider Frank Schleck has been suspended from racing after coming under suspicion in the Opertion Puerto doping affair.
His team has banned the 28-year-old while awaiting further decisions from the Luxembourg anti-doping authorities or the International Cycling Union (UCI).
The move comes following damaging allegations made last week about the rider, who wore the Tour de France yellow jersey for two days in July.
A report claimed Schleck made a payment of 7,000 euros to Doctor Eufemiano Fuentes, the alleged mastermind of a vast blood doping network based in Madrid.
While the rider has admitted paying money into an account, he insists it was only to "receive training advice by experts" and he is not a drugs cheat.
Concentrate fully
Announcing the suspension, team manager and owner Bjarne Riis said: "For the moment, Frank has to concentrate fully on this case and we will await further information from both the Luxembourg Anti-doping committee and the UCI in order to make an assessment of our further actions in relation to this.
"Together with Frank, we have made the decision that he doesn't enter our race programme until we have had the chance to evaluate the outcome of this."
He added: "We would like to express our sincere hope that Frank comes out of this case in a way that is acceptable to him and to the team and we will do our utmost to make the most reasonable and sound decisions for him and for the team."
Schleck answered the anti-doping authorities in Luxembourg earlier this week, refuting all links to the affair.
The CSC team statement issued on Friday said the 28-year-old Luxemburger admitted paying money into an account, but only to "receive training advice by experts".
Never used
It said he "never used or attempted use of a prohibited substance or a prohibited method".
The statement added: "He (Schleck) deeply regrets having taken initial contact to these people and confirms towards his team and the Luxembourg Anti-doping committee that his involvement never went beyond the initial contact, ie the bank transfer.
"He has never received, nor made use of any services from these people - including Eufemiamo Fuentes, whom he has never met.
"He is fully prepared to give a sample of his DNA to relevant authorities to prove that he has not stored blood in Madrid or elsewhere in order to make use of illegal performance enhancing methods."
The biggest name so far to be snared by the Puerto Affair is Italian ace Ivan Basso, the former leader of Schleck's CSC team, whose doping ban will end later this month.
He was caught by a codename on a blood bag, labelled with the name of his dog 'Birillo'.