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Tour de Farce

Already, media outlets are calling this year's Tour de France the Tour de Farce because of the recent doping scandals.

Now that Rabobank has yanked Tour leader Michael Rasmussen from the race because he lied to his team about his whereabouts, you can expect to hear or read that phrase over and over again the next few days.

In case you missed it, here's what The Associated Press reported tonight:

"Michael Rasmussen has been sent home for violating (the team's) internal rules," Rabobank spokesman Jacob Bergsma said.

The expulsion, which Bergsma said was ordered by the Dutch team's sponsor, was linked to "incorrect" information that Rasmussen gave to the team's sports director over his whereabouts last month. The Danish cyclist missed random drug tests May 8 and June 28, saying he was in Mexico. But a former rider, Davide Cassani, told Denmark's Danmarks Radio on Wednesday that he had seen Rasmussen in Italy in mid-June.

Late last week, Danish federation officials announced that Rasmussen had been ejected from that country's national squad and would not be representing Denmark at the world championships or at next year's Olympic Games because his missed the tests.

Even before Rasmussen was yanked from the Tour, respected cycling reporter Samuel Abt of the International Herald Tribune said, "Let no one mistake it: This (Wednesday) was one of the blackest days in the 104-year history of the Tour de France."

Abt cited the removal of Alexandre Vinokourov and Cristian Moreni from the Tour, the protest staged by dozens of riders at the start of Wednesday's stage and the jeering Rasmussen faced at the start and end of the phase.

Yet, Abt was stunned by the normalcy of the atmosphere that surrounded the Tour on Wednesday. He writes:

In short, life went on placidly in the Tour de France on Wednesday, just as it has gone on despite the Festina Scandal in 1998 and the ouster of a dozen riders before the start in Strasbourg last year.

If nobody cares enough to get mad, do they care at all? The possibility of more doping scandals depends on the answer.

And here's some commentary from Australian sports commentator John McCoy of the Brisbane Times:

"Been watching the Tour de Chemist?"

Question put to me by a mate in a half joking, half serious manner. But the truth is that one of the world's great sporting events, now more than 100 years old, and famous for its stages, has recently gone through some unfortunate public perception stages ... disbelief, disillusionment, disgust and now derision....

I love cycling, its history, traditions, champions. There are few, if any, events which in the past have epitomised strength, determination, extraordinary fitness and good old sheer guts like the Tour de France. The great modern sporting tragedy is that it's now the Tour de Farce and may never recover its deserved glory.

As an avid cyclist myself, I have experienced similar encounters from my colleagues at the Belleville News-Democrat. One colleague even accused Tour de Donut participants of "donut doping."

I can't help but think that the newest scandals will make it more difficult to convince sponsors to back events such as the Tour of Missouri, and it probably will take years for the sport to recover from the damage that has been done.

Fortunately, there's still plenty of glory to be found in cycling. I hope I'm wrong, but just don't expect to find it at the highest levels of the sport, at least for now.

Labels: cycling, racing, Tour de France

Roger 1 comments links to this post 11:29 PM

Comments:

Horror and fear are normal first responses to this ugly and regretable situation. But the TdF has a long and successful history. It's an integral part of the French culture and truly the world's greatest sporting event. I think it will survive this.. cleanning house is never easy or visually appealing. Vive le Tour!
Jack

# posted by  Anonymous : 10:02 AM

 

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