TOP 10
Notable drug scandals
Doping & drug infractions that rocked the sports world
July 27, 2006
 The celebrations for Floyd Landis were brief after news of a positive doping test surfaced just for days after the American cyclist won the 2006 Tour de France. (Getty Images) |
Doping cloud brings dark days to Tour de France
Enthusiasts say the Tour de France is the biggest, hardest, most gruelling race in existence, a prize so precious that competitors will do anything to win.
Problem is, after years of riders doing just that, cycling's most revered event may have finally – like a fading also-ran trying to ascend the Pyrenees - hit the wall.
Blame this year's absurdly dirty running, which has been plagued by a slew of doping-related controversies, culminating with leader Michael Rasmussen being booted from the race with just days to go.
While Rasmussen's shocking ouster may prove to be the final straw in breaking what's left of the event's credibilty, cheating to win the Tour is nothing new. In the old days, riders scattered broken glass on the road to slow down rivals. In the 1960s, the more ambitious competitors tried to gain a competitive edge with amphetamines and alcohol.
Later came the 1998 scandal in which French officials caught an employee of the Festina team with a carload of performance-enhancing drugs, including red-blood-cell-boosting erythropoietin, or EPO.
The 21st century began with high-profile riders including Italy's Stefano Garzelli and Spain's Igor Gonzalez de Galdeano failing drug tests, and American Lance Armstrong continues to be dogged by allegations that he doped his way to a record seven consecutive Tour titles from 1999 to 2005.
The Tour's drug crisis appeared to reach a head with 2006's L'Affaire Landis, which saw champion Floyd Landis test positive for an elevated level of testosterone during a spectacular effort in Stage 17 that propelled the American to a stunning comeback victory.
Cheating, though, reached new heights – or lows – at this year's Tour, where doping-related controversies clouded five riders, including Rasmussen.
Sporting the yellow jersey with just four stages to go, the Dutchman was removed from the race by his Rabobank team for "violating [the team's] internal rules," a move believed to be linked to Rasmussen's failure to report his whereabouts so he could be subject to random drug tests prior to the Tour.
"We cannot say that Rasmussen cheated," Tour de France director Christian Prudhomme noted. "But his flippancy and his lies on his whereabouts had become unbearable."
Rasmussen's expulsion, believed to be just the second dealt to a race leader in the 104-year history of the Tour, came a day after Alexandre Vinokourov and his team withdrew following the star cyclist's positive test for a banned blood transfusion. It also came on the same day the Cofidis team confirmed its Italian rider, Cristian Moreni, failed a doping test, prompting the withdrawal of the entire squad.
Earlier in the race, German rider Patrick Sinkewitz crashed into a spectator, then was revealed to have failed a drug test in training before the event.
The latest problems could hardly have come at a worse time for the reeling Tour, which was already facing a crisis of confidence after big names Jan Ullrich and Ivan Basso were barred before this year's event began. Both men turned up on a list of 56 cyclists who had contact with Spanish doctor Eufemiano Fuentes, the alleged brains behind a Madrid clinic that cyclists allegedly visited to have blood extracted for doping or to collect performance-enhancing drugs.
In the wake of the most recent rash of scandals, the world will be watching to see how the Tour attempts to repair its tattered reputation.
If something drastic isn't done, cycling's most famous race may soon have no one watching at all.