(Vienna, AT) - Austria’s National Doping Agency (NADA) has announced that it is investigating several athletes for alleged doping, including Ironman St. George winner Michael Weiss.

Weiss’s accomplishments in triathlon include an Ironman championship at the inaugural Ironman St. George May 1st and two podium finishes at the Xterra World Championships.

Three cyclists from the Austrian KTM team were barred from the Tour of Austria on Thursday after the national anti-doping agency opened proceedings against them for alleged doping infringements over the past five years.

Event organizers, the national cycling federation and the KTM team jointly decided to exclude Josef Kugler, Michael Knopf and Hannes Gruendlinger from the 11-day competition, which starts on Sunday.

Earlier Thursday, NADA announced it's investigating the three racers as well as two other cyclists and a triathlete for allegedly possessing and selling doping products from 2005 to 2009.

NADA said it awaited a first reply from the six athletes before possibly handing them a provisional ban. However, Tour of Austria organizer Ursula Riha said the competition has strict rules on doping suspects.

"We have excluded these riders to protect the tour and the other teams," Riha told the Austria Press Agency. "We suspended them as a precaution, everything else is up to NADA."

Head of the KTM team Erwin Hoertl called it "a massive blow" to his team. "We have suspended them immediately after (NADA's) announcement," Hoertl was quoted as saying by APA. "We had no other choice as every sponsor would have felt fooled if we let them take part on the tour."

The other cyclists named were Christian Ebner and mountain-biker Robert Kircher. NADA said former mountain-biker and triathlete Michael Weiss was also under investigation. Ebner was banned from the under-23 race at the 2006 road world championships in Salzburg, Austria, for missing a doping test a week before the race. Weiss and Kugler are suspected of having had blood taken at the Humanplasma lab in Vienna. The others are alleged to have possessed, ingested and used forbidden substances.

Humanplasma revealed in March that its facility had been used by several coaches to help about 30 athletes with blood doping from 2003 to 2006.