Guarded Tour de France armed against doping

by armchairsports | July 3, 2008 at 10:21 am | 215 views | 1 comment

For the second year in a row the Tour will start without the previous year's winner in the peleton. Once again the specter of doping hangs over one of the oldest sporting events in the world. To add to the spice of the event the ongoing battle between the race's organiser (the ASO) and the cyclists union (UCI) mean that the organisers have arranged for their own doping controls and cut the UCI out of the loop. Some are speculating that the UCI has found some abnormal results to tests recently that involve riders slated to start the race - but that they are holding off naming names until the race begins to further discredit the Tour. Such a move would surely bring the cycling world further to the edge of collapse. We can only hope for some to put the sport and riders first.

That aside, like last year, this year the field is wide open, and should the event go off without scandal, it promises to be one of the most tightly contested races in years. In the spirit of our reality television age - millions will watch hoping for a sublime performance or a train wreck... the train wreck this year though, will have greater repercussions than a Simon Cowell snit.

Guarded Tour de France armed against doping
By JEROME PUGMIRE, AP Sports Writer Jun 28, 12:49 EDT

PARIS (AP)—For a second year running, the Tour de France has no defending champion and no star. More than ever, the showcase event desperately needs a clean race following the recent doping scandals that have brought the 105-year institution to its knees.

Whether the battered Tour can get up off the canvas is as uncertain as picking the favorite, given that 2007 champ Alberto Contador, mountain expert Michael Rasmussen and former favorite Ivan Basso are not taking part.

Tour organizers hope an intense cleanup operation will help avoid a major doping scandal during the July 5-27 race.

“There is a real change in mentality within the teams, the riders, to ensure that cycling recovers its credibility,” Tour race director Christian Prudhomme told The Associated Press in an interview. “Cycling is judged over three weeks in July. I hope everyone has this in mind. Without doubt, it’s an important year for the image of cycling.”

Australia’s Cadel Evans, runner-up last year, and Alejandro Valverde of Spain, winner of the prestigious pre-Tour tuneup at the Dauphine Libere earlier this month, will be eyeing the famed yellow jersey.

But neither has star power.

“Without the favorites from other years, it’s going to put a lot more pressure and stress on those guys for sure,” Team CSC sprinter Stuart O’Grady, a 34-year-old Australian who has missed only one Tour since 1997, told The Associated Press by telephone on Friday.

In a development that could overshadow a star-starved race, cycling’s governing body, the UCI, will not help with doping tests at the Tour because of a widening rift in the sport.

The UCI and organizers of cycling’s three big events—the Tour, Vuelta and Giro—have locked horns for years about how the sport should be governed.

The feud reached a new height in March, when the Tour’s organizer, the Amaury Sport Organization, ran the Paris-Nice race under its own laws and the UCI responded by suspending the French cycling federation for backing the ASO.

UCI president Pat McQuaid suspects ASO of harboring desires to establish a private cycling league. Prudhomme denies this. But the family owned ASO, which also owns the Tour of Burkina Faso, is expanding its empire overseas. It recently signed a marketing agreement with Tour of California owners Anschutz Entertainment Group.

The Tour seems far removed from the glory days between 1999 and 2005 when it had thrilling rivalries between seven-time champion Lance Armstrong and his challengers: 1997 winner Jan Ullrich, 1998 champ Marco Pantani and Basso, the 2005 runner-up.

Following Armstrong’s retirement three years ago, the path was cleared for a new star to emerge.

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kferaday

at 12:48 on July 3rd, 2008

I don't know who Jerome Pugmire is but it's pretty clear he doesn't know anything about cycling. Last year's Tour was the most exciting in recent memory -- far better than the drudgery of the Armstrong years when there was absolutely no drama to the race.

The reason cycling has so many doping positives is that it's actually doing something to clean up the sport -- more than any other sport. You don't see that in the NFL or MLB where doping is rampant. If they did effective dope testing in the NFL there probably wouldn't be a franchise that could field a team. And since this has influences hundreds of thousands of young athletes in the high school and university systems to dope (25,000 in California alone in a recent survey) it really shows how morally bankrupt American professional sports.

The ASO and UCI are having their conflicts -- but that's mostly about money and power over the direction of the sport. The ASO is very serious about stopping doping however. That's why the didn't invite Astana and why there's a 100,000 Euro fine against any team that has a rider who tests positive.

As far as stars, the drama of the race will make new stars. Aside from Evans and Valverde, there's the Schleck brothers and my favourite Damiano Cunego who is going to be riding with an "I'm Doping Free" tattoo.