Posted in the Sacramento Bee, from the Austin American Statesman)
http://www.statesman.com/sports/content/sports/stories/other/07/1tourassess.html
TOUR DE FRANCE
Armstrong's gone, but doping lives on
Tour faces latest image problem.
By Suzanne Halliburton
AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF
Saturday, July 01, 2006
The October route announcement from the Tour de France seems like such a sardonic farce now, given the carnage that occurred Friday in Strasbourg. Hours before the start of the world's biggest bike race, the event lost its big names to doping allegations.
In October, Tour officials announced the 2006 route in a traditional reception in Paris and didn't even acknowledge that retired seven-time Tour de France champion Lance Armstrong had ever been part of their race. All the while, they talked of ridding their sport of the drug cheats.
The implication was clear. No Armstrong = clean race.
Yet Friday morning, organizers were in full panic mode, as teams dumped their star European riders, including yellow jersey favorites Ivan Basso and Jan Ullrich, from their rosters. The cyclists had been implicated in Operacion Puerto, an extensive drug investigation conducted by the Spanish Civil Guard.
Police had concentrated their investigation on a former cycling team doctor based in Madrid. In May, they seized his medical files, drugs and other blood doping products. They also eavesdropped on hours of the doctor's phone calls. All of the information was used to compile an extensive list of athletes, including as many as 58 cyclists, who allegedly had blood doped. It's nearly impossible to detect blood doping, in which the cyclists use their own transfused blood, in a drug screen.
The Spanish police were able to link the riders to their code names, which oddly enough, ended up being the names of the cyclists' pet dogs.
Now, the traditionally graceful Tour may be a dog of a 2,272-mile race.
None of the top five riders from a year ago will roll out of the starting gate for today's prologue. It's similar to what happened to the race in 1998, when on the eve of the start, police confiscated drugs from team cars owned by Festina, a French squad. A year later, Tour director Jean Marie Leblanc found himself thanking Armstrong for restoring the race's dignity with his positive story.
On Friday, the directors of the 21 teams were the ones who made the final decision to dismiss the riders. The 500-page report was turned over to them Friday morning, although the contents weren't that much of a surprise. Pages of the report had been leaked to newspapers in Spain since the end of May. And earlier this week, the buzz among the directors was that Ullrich wouldn't be allowed to start today's prologue. Basso's name leaked out Thursday, although rumors that he may be part of the Spanish investigation were circulating as he won the Giro d'Italia by the biggest margin in 41 years.
The directors were unanimous in voting off any rider who was mentioned in the report, saying that their code of ethics, which was implemented Jan. 1, 2005, wouldn't allow a cyclist under a drug investigation to be included in the race.
Now here's the ironic part:
No rider from Discovery, Armstrong's former team, was implicated, although most of the squad lives near Barcelona and one-third of the Tour riders are Spanish. Johan Bruyneel, team director, said he wasn't surprised that none of his riders was involved.
"Of course, but you never know, you're working with individuals," Bruyneel said at a press conference. "You can't go from the race to somebody's house and live with them and see what he does. I will never say I was 100 percent sure because you never know. But I was sure we didn't have anybody involved."
American riders benefitted most from the upheaval, considering that Levi Leipheimer, Floyd Landis and George Hincapie are now among the favorites in the most wide open Tour race since its inception in 1903.
Armstrong's greatest rivals were the ones implicated, although it must be made clear that none of them has been proved guilty.
Ullrich, the 1997 champion and five-time runner-up to Armstrong, was the first cyclist to be booted. His longtime mentor, Rudy Pevenage, also was removed as director of Ullrich's T-Mobile team. At age 32, Ullrich's career likely is over, even if he fights the charges. Francisco Mancebo, who was fourth a year ago, learned he was kicked out of the peloton and announced his retirement.
Basso, who finished second to Armstrong a year ago, left for his home in northern Italy, slipping out of the team hotel while CSC Director Bjarne Riis announced the news of his dismissal at a press conference. Basso's contract dictated that he could not be treated by a doctor who wasn't employed by his team.
Meanwhile, Armstrong was at home in Austin when the news broke from Strasbourg. Earlier in the day Armstrong received an apology and a favorable settlement from the Sunday Times of London in a two-year-old libel suit he had against the paper.
A month ago, when news started breaking about Operacion Puerto, Armstrong had only one thing to say: "We have a clean team."
shalliburton@statesman.com
http://www.statesman.com/sports/content/sports/stories/other/07/1tourassess.html
TOUR DE FRANCE
Armstrong's gone, but doping lives on
Tour faces latest image problem.
By Suzanne Halliburton
AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF
Saturday, July 01, 2006
The October route announcement from the Tour de France seems like such a sardonic farce now, given the carnage that occurred Friday in Strasbourg. Hours before the start of the world's biggest bike race, the event lost its big names to doping allegations.
In October, Tour officials announced the 2006 route in a traditional reception in Paris and didn't even acknowledge that retired seven-time Tour de France champion Lance Armstrong had ever been part of their race. All the while, they talked of ridding their sport of the drug cheats.
The implication was clear. No Armstrong = clean race.
Yet Friday morning, organizers were in full panic mode, as teams dumped their star European riders, including yellow jersey favorites Ivan Basso and Jan Ullrich, from their rosters. The cyclists had been implicated in Operacion Puerto, an extensive drug investigation conducted by the Spanish Civil Guard.
Police had concentrated their investigation on a former cycling team doctor based in Madrid. In May, they seized his medical files, drugs and other blood doping products. They also eavesdropped on hours of the doctor's phone calls. All of the information was used to compile an extensive list of athletes, including as many as 58 cyclists, who allegedly had blood doped. It's nearly impossible to detect blood doping, in which the cyclists use their own transfused blood, in a drug screen.
The Spanish police were able to link the riders to their code names, which oddly enough, ended up being the names of the cyclists' pet dogs.
Now, the traditionally graceful Tour may be a dog of a 2,272-mile race.
None of the top five riders from a year ago will roll out of the starting gate for today's prologue. It's similar to what happened to the race in 1998, when on the eve of the start, police confiscated drugs from team cars owned by Festina, a French squad. A year later, Tour director Jean Marie Leblanc found himself thanking Armstrong for restoring the race's dignity with his positive story.
On Friday, the directors of the 21 teams were the ones who made the final decision to dismiss the riders. The 500-page report was turned over to them Friday morning, although the contents weren't that much of a surprise. Pages of the report had been leaked to newspapers in Spain since the end of May. And earlier this week, the buzz among the directors was that Ullrich wouldn't be allowed to start today's prologue. Basso's name leaked out Thursday, although rumors that he may be part of the Spanish investigation were circulating as he won the Giro d'Italia by the biggest margin in 41 years.
The directors were unanimous in voting off any rider who was mentioned in the report, saying that their code of ethics, which was implemented Jan. 1, 2005, wouldn't allow a cyclist under a drug investigation to be included in the race.
Now here's the ironic part:
No rider from Discovery, Armstrong's former team, was implicated, although most of the squad lives near Barcelona and one-third of the Tour riders are Spanish. Johan Bruyneel, team director, said he wasn't surprised that none of his riders was involved.
"Of course, but you never know, you're working with individuals," Bruyneel said at a press conference. "You can't go from the race to somebody's house and live with them and see what he does. I will never say I was 100 percent sure because you never know. But I was sure we didn't have anybody involved."
American riders benefitted most from the upheaval, considering that Levi Leipheimer, Floyd Landis and George Hincapie are now among the favorites in the most wide open Tour race since its inception in 1903.
Armstrong's greatest rivals were the ones implicated, although it must be made clear that none of them has been proved guilty.
Ullrich, the 1997 champion and five-time runner-up to Armstrong, was the first cyclist to be booted. His longtime mentor, Rudy Pevenage, also was removed as director of Ullrich's T-Mobile team. At age 32, Ullrich's career likely is over, even if he fights the charges. Francisco Mancebo, who was fourth a year ago, learned he was kicked out of the peloton and announced his retirement.
Basso, who finished second to Armstrong a year ago, left for his home in northern Italy, slipping out of the team hotel while CSC Director Bjarne Riis announced the news of his dismissal at a press conference. Basso's contract dictated that he could not be treated by a doctor who wasn't employed by his team.
Meanwhile, Armstrong was at home in Austin when the news broke from Strasbourg. Earlier in the day Armstrong received an apology and a favorable settlement from the Sunday Times of London in a two-year-old libel suit he had against the paper.
A month ago, when news started breaking about Operacion Puerto, Armstrong had only one thing to say: "We have a clean team."
shalliburton@statesman.com
