Joseba Beloki, a three-time Tour de France podium finish, is hanging up his bicycle at age 34.

“I leave with my head high and proud of all I have accomplished,” The Associated Press quoted Beloki as saying. “Like in all things with life, there exists a start and finish and while I was hoping to end my sporting career on a high, I’ve already arrived at this point and this was something I had to accept.”

Beloki was the runner-up to Lance Armstrong in  the 2002 Tour de France and placed third in 2000 and 2001. He suffered a broken leg and a broken hip in a horrific downhill crash in the 2003 Tour when he was considered one of Armstrong’s biggest challengers.  Armstrong  was trailing closely behind Beloki when the Spanish rider went down, and Armstrong took evasive action that sent him off the rode through a field before  he got  off his bike and hopped over a ditch to rejoin the race.

Beloki’s career was  tarnished in 2006 when he was implicated in the Operacion Puerto Doping scandal.

“Cyclists are living in a desperate moment of suffering, solidarity, lies and betrayal,” the AP quoted Beloki as saying.  â€œCycling is dying a slow death.”

Also Friday, the Spanish Cycling Federation said it would not sanction Iban Mayo, after tests of a B-sample during the 2007 TdF came up with  varying results between a lab in Belgium and the Chatenay-Malabry lab in France. The Belgium results were inconclusive. The French lab came up with a positive on the same sample.

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