Cycling's Hour of Shame

Controversy reigns at the start of The Tour de France, 2006

Cycling's tryst with shame and dope continues pedalling the sport into dungeons and dark corners. Just as the world of cycling fans were waking up to a new dawn to welcome the rise of a new champion, in the post Armstrong era there are damning revelations about the continued use of drugs. The sport was viciously tainted in 1998 and has ever since struggled to find the clean road to sporting excellence.

The Tour de France, the three week show piece event has been marred by the effects of a report that implicates 58 cyclists connecting them to a doping network. The impact has torn the tour apart depriving it of the participation of even money favourite Ivan Basso, second favourite Jan Ullrich besides Joseba Beloki and Alexandre Vinokourov. Vinokourov, fifth last year and third in 2003, is most unfortunate. The report hasn't indicted him, but his team Astana withdrew on Friday leaving him without a team. Under the rules of the tour, you aren't allowed to switch a team less 72 hours from the start.

While this may leave the road clear for participants such as George Hincapie and Eric Zabel among others to emerge champions on July 23, it will be in a sport that is stripped of dignity and respect. But with no clear favourite, this may yet turn out to be a fascinating edition of the tour.

At the centre of the Spanish investigations, that have taken the wheels off cycling, are Spanish doctors Eufemiano Fuentes and José Luis Merino, head of hematology for a Madrid hospital. According to reports by the Spanish newspaper El País, said to be based on court documents, Mr. Merino used hospital personnel and vehicles to procure supplies used to treat and store the cyclists' blood. The police also found at least 90 bags of frozen blood or red blood cells, identified with numbers and date. They also found lists of code names, presumed to refer to the athletes, and payment status.

If the Spanish investigation's findings are correct, a significant number of athletes are reportedly paying up to €40,000 to boost their performance through the use of banned substances and methods. In addition to using EPO and other drugs, those implicated are suspected of blood doping - extracting an athlete's blood and reinjecting it later to increase endurance. More importantly these findings may damage the sport beyond repair, as fans begin to view their champions with doubt. Cycling runs the serious risk of degenerating into the same shambles as the home run chase in the NFL.

The action continues as Le Tour carries on into its 93rd edition, but the eyes of the world are looking for answers to the cheating that clothes many a cyclist. This year the Prologue and stage 1 of the tour will centre around Strasbourg, the French city that hosts the European Parliament.