Top Australian cyclist Matthew Lloyd was sacked on Friday by his professional team due to his "behavior." Omega Pharma Lotto did not go into details beyond ruling out "forbidden products", only saying on its website that "our team's image cannot be connected to Matthew's behaviour any more".
 
Lloyd, who won a stage of the Giro d'Italia last year and also won the king of the mountain category in the race, has struggled to find form so far during the current European season.

"Recent incidents during the first races disputed in 2011 by Matthew for our team made this collaboration impossible," the team said. "We follow a policy of zero tolerance of which we cannot divert. For the sake of clarity: this has nothing to do with the use of forbidden products."
 
Lloyd's big objective this year was a strong performance at next month's Giro d'Italia, but it is now unclear if he will have a team to ride with for the event.