Francois Perol, president of banking group Banque Populaire-Caisses d'Epargne (BPCE), said: "There will be a Caisse d'Epargne team on the 2010 Tour de France but it's a contract that stops in 2010.

"It will not be renewed.

"We became the French banking sponsor of the Olympic Games so we will accompany the French national teams to Vancouver, to London in 2012 and we will support Annecy's candidacy for the Winter Olympics in 2018.

"It's a business management decision and because the values of the Olympics seem to correspond closely to the values of BPCE.

"This decision was taken on managing grounds as we feel we share the same values as those championed by the Olympic Movement."

Caisse d'Epargne has sponsored the Spanish cycling team run first by Jose Miguel Echavarri and latterly Eusebio Unzue since 2005.

In 2006 Pereiro finished in second place in Tour behind the American Floyd Landis, who it was then revealed had tested positive for testosterone during the race.

Following a protracted appeals process, which took two years, Landis was disqualified and the Spaniard was finally declared the winner of the Tour.

But it was later revealed that Pereiro had also tested positive twice during the 2006 Tour for the asthma drug salbutamol only for him to be given a retroactive permission to use the drug and escape punishment.

But Spain's Alejandro Valverde, one of the team's current top riders, is currently serving a two-year suspension in Italy for alleged links to the notorious Operation Puerto doping scandal.

Other members of the team includes Spain's Paris-Nice winner Luis Leon Sanchez, Colombian climbers Mauricio Soler and Rigoberto Uran, and up-and-coming Portuguese rider Rui Da Costa.

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