Le Tour de France (Dopage)

7-9-2007

England and the Tour have parted ways. After the Prolog and Stage 1 the Tour has moved on to Dunkirk. London was especially dreary in the week leading up to the start on Saturday but the sun was shinning on the peloton for the 2007 start of the Tour de France. It was a great couple of days for the Tour and for England. Great Britain had never hosted a Tour stage but the crowds turned out.. I’ve never seen such large crowds for any Tour stage including the final stage in Paris. The Prolog ‘parcour’ was lined five deep with fans.

Fabian Cancellara and Robby McEwen each put on a show. McEwen was especially impressive after a crash in the final kilometers and a wild ride through the peleton to win by over a bike length in the final sprint. Still it was not enough to capture the ‘maillot jaune’ from Cancellara.

The 2nd stage, Dunkirk, France to Gent, Belgium is flat - hardly a bump in the road; a sprinter’s day. Boring until the last few kilometers, and then dangerous as the sprinters jockey for the perfect line to the finish. McEwen hopes to repeat his win in Canterbury

7-19-2007

I’m not much of a sport reporter, even writing about my favorite sport, cycling, bores me. So I never finished the previous entry and I have not kept everyone informed about the progress of the Tour de France. I have noted that I have not received one complaint.

England was fun to watch; northern France and Belgium – a bore; except, of course, the cobbles; but the Alps were magnificent. It’s cliqued & hackneyed to gush on about the beauty of the Alps, but even with the grainy images broadcast by Versus the peaks and valleys took my breath away. The riders long struggle up the mountain seem insignificant in the face of the mountains
The one thing that has happen is that drug usage has raised it ugly head once again in the Tour. A T-Mobile rider, Patrik Sinkewitz, tested positive for testosterone. The test was conducted in a training camp in June before the Tour had begun, and he had already dropped out as the result of a crash with a pedestrian. While I will grant that it is hard to have sympathy for him, the concept of innocent until proven guilty seems to be alien to the bureaucrats of cycling. They are all pronouncing him guilty, even before the ‘B’ tests results. Even one of the staff on T-Mobile said that he assumed that the ‘B’ test would come back positive.

Two German TV station suspended broadcast of the Tour pending the outcome of the drug case. It seems they had a clause in there contract that allowed them to withdraw if the Tour was not drug free. At first it seemed a bit strange, but with all the trouble with drugs over the last ten years in cycling you can hardly blame them

As a side note, for those of you not familiar with the drug testing rules and procedures; if a rider tests positive, he can them request that a second test be performed to confirm the results of the ‘A’ test. If the ‘B’ test comes back negative then he is assumed to be innocent, if it comes back positive he begins the long conviction and penalty phase. Conviction is a long and convoluted process.

Drugs have become a scourge they seem to have infiltrated all sports. Gary Player challenged the official of professional golf to test for drugs. He claimed to have talked to one player on the professional circuit that admitted to drug use.

7-23-2007

Today I am outraged, outraged I tell you!! Over what you may ask, doping in cycling, of course. It’s the season of cycling, the Tour de France and of course dope-in-sports.

This time it involves Michael Rasmussen of the Rabobank team. It is all very confusing - the reports contradict one another; but from what I can make out, Rasmussen did not inform the Danish Cycling Union’s drug control people of his whereabouts and subsequently missed two drug tests. He apparently ignored several warning. Consequently, he was thrown off the Danish national team and he will not be permitted to represent Denmark in the Olympics in Beijing. All of this happened a few days before the beginning of the Tour de France; however, it was not announced.

The Danish cycling officials decided to make the announcement a few days ago; under the pretext of countering a statement made by Rasmussen to a reporter that he had only received one warning. Of course at the time of the announcement he was the maillot jaune of the Tour – sound a little fishy?

Missing three drug tests is the equivalent to a positive test. He has had several tests subsequent to the missed tests and prior to the beginning of the Tour and has not tested positive.
But that’s not what I’m outraged over. Pat McQuaid, the Head of the International Cycling Union, UCI, known by the initial of the organizations name in French, was quoted in the New York Times today as stating that he thought it would be better if Rasmussen did not win the Tour. Furthermore Christian Prudhomme, the Director of the Tour de France, claimed he would tried to have had Rabobank exclude Rasmussen from the Tour if he had known about the missed drug tests. The both of them are a disgrace; they are both officials responsible for the overall integrity of cycling. Where is there sense of fair play? They are not some sport columnist trying to sell newspaper, or David Miller of Sandoval venting their frustration at what the drug scandal are doing to the sport they love. They are following Dick Pounds poor example.

8-8-2007

The Tour de France has ended on an infamous note; Michael Rasmusen was pulled out of the Tour a few days before the end by his team for lying about his whereabouts during the time the UCI drug testers were looking for him. Consequently, Alberto Contador of Team Discovery wore the maillot jaune in Paris. Joining him on the podium was Cadel Evans of Team Predictor Lotto and Levi Lepheimer of Discovery.

Alexander Vinokourov, the pre-race favorite was removed from the Tour and sacked by Astana after he tested positive for blood doping. Vinokourov was barred from participation last year because his team at the time Liberty Seguros was banned for it’s involvement in Operación Puerto. It is all too complicated and convoluted to review.

I still enjoy the Tour, despite the drugs, the cheating and the back biting. The country side is beautiful; the difficulty of the Tour is humbling; watching the struggles and tactics of the climbs followed by the thrill of the descents keeps me hooked – I just have to squint a bit to avoid seeing the reality of the race too clearly.

A few years ago I stopped my subscription to Sporting News because they added a section on NASCAR. Adding the grease and crass commercialism of NASCAR was too much to bear. A few years before that I quit following basketball because the players were jerks. For some reason the commercialism and jerks in football never rose to the level of rejection.

And now for the latest, Contador is banned from participation in the Hamburg Cyclassics race because of his association with Operación Puerto. He was named in one of the Operación Puerto documents but had been cleared by the UCI and thus able to participate in the Tour de France. Who knows what will come next.

Cycling is a sport I love, more than football. I love to watch, to follow, and especially to ride, but it is getting close, close to not watching, close to not following, but never close to not riding.