French custom agents searched at least four team buses Monday in surprise inspections as the Tour de France wobbles into its final week with yellow jersey Michael Rasmussen dogged by doping allegations.

Uniformed French officials waved over team buses as they rolled through a toll station along the A-64 highway, southwest of Toulouse. The team vehicles were driving an off-race route to the finish of stage 15.

VeloNews saw buses from Team CSC, Astana, Rabobank and Discovery Channel being searched by French authorities. Bus drivers were told to open compartments, panel doors and other storage bins as authorities made inquiries. Officials also entered the buses to conduct searches and were even spotted looking underneath the Astana team bus.

Authorities did not answer specific questions from journalists and banned TV cameras and photographers from taking images of the officers’ faces.

The Astana bus was the most thoroughly searched of the four

Photo: Neal Rogers

One official described the searches as “routine” and said they were not targeting specific teams.

All four teams were quickly cleared and allowed to continue.

It was unclear whether the surprise searches were a one-off or marked a return of increased surveillance.

CSC spokesman Brian Nygaard was with the team as its bus was searched. Nygaard said it was the first time his team’s bus had been inspected at this year’s Tour, adding he couldn’t remember the last time CSC’s bus had been rifled through by customs agents.

“They asked to see our papers, and said they wanted to search the bus,” Nygaard said. “The officers went through our things. They were very polite. I don’t know what their motive was. They found nothing and told us we could leave.”

In 1998, French customs officials helped blow the cover of organized doping in the peloton when Festina soigneur Willy Voet was found carrying more than 400 doses of banned doping products in a routine customs search.