"I will quit if I have to prove my innocence through a DNA test. Cycling makes no sense any more if this happens," the Spaniard Pereiro was quoted as saying.

The allegations that Pereiro is linked with the doping probe surrounding doctor Eufemiano Fuentes were published for the first time by Italian newspaper Il Giornale

But Pereiro denied the accusations and said he is ready to sue Il Giornale. "I don't know Fuentes and have never seen him," Pereiro was quoted as saying.

Pereiro came second at last year's Tour de France and could be declared 2006 Tour winner if the original top finisher Floyd Landis is disqualified over a positive doping test for testosterone.

Landis is currently investigated by the United States Anti-Doping Agency and if found guilty he will have to serve the mandatory two-year ban.

On Thursday, former Tour winner Greg LeMond testified at the hearing, revealing that he was intimidated the day before by Landis' manager Will Geoghegan.
"What I felt was right was to come here and tell the truth," LeMond said when his short time in the witness chair was over. "People say it's the message that hurts this sport, but it's not that. It's cheating that hurts this sport, and that's all I have to say."
LeMond said that Geoghegan threatened to reveal that LeMond was sexually abused as a child, a secret LeMond said he had shared with Landis in an effort to make him confess to doping if he was really guilty.

"It was a real threat, it was real creepy, and I think it shows the extent of who it is," LeMond said. "I think there's another side of Floyd that the public hasn't seen." Geoghegan apologised and admitted to have made the call and was subsequently fired as manager, according to Landis' lawyer Maurice Suh.