The Vacansoleil-DCM cycling team suspended Italian rider Riccardo Ricco Friday amid reports he was hospitalized after giving himself a blood transfusion.

An investigation by Vacansoleil of the reported transfusion "brought the team to the conclusion that an immediate suspension of Ricco was required," the team said in a statement.

Ricco signed with Vacansoleil this season after a 20-month ban for doping at the 2008 Tour de France.

Team spokesman Frank Kwanten said Ricco had been suspended, but not fired. He declined to give any medical details of the case.

"It is not a usual doping case in which you get an A sample and a B sample and you can fire a rider," Kwanten said. "It is all new for us and we need to find out how to handle this within the law and within the limitations we have in the contract."

The team statement said that "violation of internal regulations of the team and other indications" justified the suspension.

"The team can not prejudge but emphasizes that a zero-tolerance policy towards doping is practiced," Vacansoleil added.

Italian prosecutors and the Italian Olympic Committee also are investigating the reports about Ricco.

The Gazzetto dello Sport said Wednesday that doctors at Pavullo Hospital in Modena quoted Ricco as saying he administered a transfusion on himself using blood stored in the refrigerator for 25 days.

The paper said he was admitted to the hospital on Sunday in a state of shock.

The head of the Italian Cycling Federation, Renato Di Rocco, this week urged Ricco to leave the cycling sport for his own good and the good of cycling. He issued a blistering statement calling Ricco sick and "intoxicated by false messages."

"He did what he did despite the sentence he received and despite the risk to his own life," Di Rocco said. "The damage to cycling's image is enormous, and the federation will do everything possible to repair it. But the moral disaster is terrifying."