Anybody keeping up with the Tour this year? I thought last year was bad, but this year...sheesh.

In the span of 3 days, we've had Vinokourov and the entire Astana team kicked out, Cofidis pulls out, T-Mobile and Cofidis are threatening to pull their sponsorships, and now Michael Rasmussen (the overall leader) has been booted.

It's sad to see cycling become such a dirty sport.

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I don't think this sport more dirty than others, but the Tour de France organization is fighting against black sheeps... and as a result they find guys stupid enough to persist in dopage.

My thoughts and support go to all thoses clean racing cyclists who keep training hard and see a few smearing their sport.

Sometimes one has to hit the bottom to recover - this might be their bottom. Nice to see a professional sport taking doping testing seriously ( you hear that baseball ;-) )

I hope this is cyclings way of cleaning up their act . To say i am an avid sports fan would be an understatement , I love playing and watching just about all sports . But to a sports fan that has a passing interest in finding out about pro cycling , seeing some new allegation of doping and/or steroid use on an almost daily basis gives me the impression "all these guys are on the $h!t , what a joke" .

The will to win has clouded their brains ... how else could one hope to get away with blood doping, injections, et al in the light of constant drug testing? Perhaps the sport must share part of the blame; I once read that riding in the Tour is like running a marathon every day for three weeks. Too many races, too little rest, ... I haven't followed bike racing like I did when I actually rode so I'm not sure if the season is longer or if the races themselves are becoming longer, harder, etc.

Even golf, the supposed last bastion of gentlemen, is being questioned for drug use.

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"I thought I was invincible, but that's only true for comic book heroes." Valentino Rossi

I have been a cyclist all of my life. While I know it does appear that there are a lot of people doping in cycling, I do not believe it is true. Cycling nationally and internationally has a very lower tolerance for doping of any kind. This is an issue that has been in the spotlight for the past few years but has been going on for a long time. There have been raids in the middle of the night that have sent people to jail for years, not fined or suspended as in many other sports. Why there are still athletes cheating I do not know. WADA (World Anti Doping Agency) just issue a statement yesterday, “We will have a clean sport”. “If you are cheating you will be caught maybe not today, tomorrow but you will because we will not let up”. Many teams are now testing on their own and working hard to remove all cheaters from the sport. A friend of mine and professional cyclist just was released from a one year suspension for not reporting to a random test after a race he DNF’d. There was no one at the finish line to inform him that he was drawn for the random and nothing posted about it. He was told it was his job to find out if he needed to be tested or not period. I have a hard time believing that any other sport is as strict on drug use as cycling. That is why when people do cheat they do get caught and the public is informed. I think we will see more of this for the next year or two as teams and WADA keep pushing on but soon it will become very rare. All I hope is that people new to the sport and sponsors will not be turned off by all the hard work cycling is doing to make it the cleanest sport in the world. For more information check out: World Anti-Doping Agency.

Couldn’t agree more with most of your comments Brian, but lets face it, first the teams and then the riders have been one step in front of the doctors, yes I agree we would all like too see a "clean" race, and whether Rasmussen was correct to start the race or not I don't know, but once started you can't then kick him out 'cause he's leading…..oh I forgot he’s not French, so of course you can……
I’ve been a fan of the Tour for 20 years, but I’ve now turned off and I really don’t care if Discovery now wins with Contador, or if Cadel Evans pips him at the post in the Time Trial on Saturday…….sad………………… where is Floyd Landis anyway and what happened to the Phonac Team after Last Years Fiasco????...not good (yea I know he’s still fighting to clear his name)

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allan@motordrive.com

Respectfully, I don't agree with what you say relative to doping. I think that at the upper level of cycling, as in the Tour, doping is rampant, even with the testing. The reason why they dope is that is the only way that they can win at the upper level of the sport. You think that there is not a lot of doping. It depends at what level you are speaking of- the recreational cyclist like me, or the pro in the Tour. If you took all the participants at the Tour and divided them into two rooms- those who have doped and those who have not, I think that you would need a real big room for those who have and a telephone booth for those who have not. Many simply have not been caught. As they say, the cyclists and their doping are sophisticated, ahead of testing capabilities in some cases. I am very active on a cycling forum and I think few there would agree with you. You might be correct, of course, but I seriously doubt it.


Doobydarby

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Adopt a dog!

First off I am sorry Tess Tickle that all of this has spoiled the tour for you.

Doobydarby, I do agree with you that there are a lot of cyclists in the Pro Tour that have used drugs. For years many Americans would not race in Europe because of all of the doping. American riders felt if they did not dope they could not compete. More recently mountain bike racer from the US would not compete in the World Cup because of doping. However that has changed due to the way riders are selected to compete for for slots in the Olympic Games. It is now the riders with the most UCI points. This has a lot of the top US mountain bike racers chasing points all over the globe.

Today with all of the testing and better testing doping is not as common as it has been in years past but it is hard for the average person to see. It has just been in the last number of years that Americans are able to watch the tour because of riders like Lemond, Lance and the early work done by 7 Eleven team. So all of this doping sounds new but in fact 15 years ago I bet the whole peloton was on something. I think since that point 15 years ago there has been major steps taken to reduce doping in cycling but you still have guys on stuff because they need it to compete at that level or would not be tour contender without it (greed).

I believe we are witnessing a new era in cycling that doping will not be tolerated period. The riders, the sponsors, the teams all want to put a stop to it. Now I do not believe it will ever stop completely. There will always be people who will risk being caught but that is true in anything we humans do. I am sorry to ramble on but cycling is a great sport and has been an important part of my life.

Landis agreed with organizers not to participate in this year's Tour while fighting the doping allegations of last year's Tour. Because of this, the Phonak team dissolved and no longer exists.

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Well F'ing stated, by the above post and various other supporters!!!! I too have been an avid cyclist over the last 10 years and have attended varouis local cycling events and the Giro d' Italia, Gent Wevelghem, Paris Roubaix, Tour of Flanders and 2 TdF's (most recently the Grand Depart in London).

Cycling is the ONLY sport that is dealing with drug use in a "hard line" fashion, period. American sports are full to the brim up and down the ladder from pre-high school through to college and especially in the pro ranks with rampant drug use. Look at early photos of Sosa, McGuire and Bonds...dont get me started on US Football, talk about a culture of doping!

To single out cycling by calling it dirty is calling the kettle black. I hope that the various players unions and sports leagues will take a cue from the UCI, WADA, and ASO to take a stand against doping, introduce policies to deal with these cheaters, and most importantly, give these policies "teeth" by enforcing them.

That being said, these agencies need to be held into strict account for chain of custody of samples and licensing of their labs. Riders names cannot be released to the press, simply because of a positive on their A sample. This is an ethical code that WADA routinely breaks (Landis, Hamilton, Ullrich, Basso, etc.). These agencies need to be held to a high level of professional conduct and ethics.

My hat is off to the cyclists who ride clean and continue onto Paris. The ASO is doing everything right to get the cheats out of the peleton and give the race back to the fans.

Vive l' Tour

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2007 Cayman Black / Black Standard Leather / Performance Plus Package
"I could never stay sober on that Corpus Christi Bay.." REKII

It looks like journalism focuses too much on the negative. How many out there are NOT doping? You don't hear any of those success in the Tour especially since Lance Armstrong is now out of the picture. There's no one to blame now so they target everyone.

I especially think they're after the non-French cyclists. TDF would hate to have a Danish rider win the race.


I've followed the Tour since '89 and I'm quite sick of listening to "allegations" and this rampant game of blaming.