Can the Tour de France be saved after latest doping scandal?

By Siegfried Mortkowitz Jul 25, 2007, 4:20 GMT

A note is seen on an Astana team car reading \'For sale - one euro\' on the second rest day of the Tour de France cycling race, Pau, France 24 July 2007. The entire Astana team pulled out of the Tour de France cycling race after rider Alexandre Vinokourov of Kazakhstan was tested positive for blood doping after the individual time-trial in Albi last 21 July. EPA/OLIVER WEIKEN

Paris - The news that Kazakh cyclist Alexandre Vinokourov tested positive for a banned blood transfusion shook the Tour de France to its foundations on Tuesday, and left organizers scrambling to save the world's most prestigious cycling event from extinction.

Vinokourov's Astana team did all the right things, suspending the 33-year-old cyclist and dropping out of the race at the request of Tour organizers, team manager Marc Biver said, adding: 'I fear for the future of the team.'

But most cycling fans will now fear for the future of the Tour. This year's edition, which was supposed to have been the race's first step on the road back to credibility, has been hit hard by several scandals.

First, German public TV stations ARD and ZDF stopped broadcasting the race live after it was reported that German cyclist Patrik Sinkewitz had been detected with an illegally high level of testosterone in an out-of-competition test in June, a month before the Tour started.

Then, the Danish Cycling Federation announced that Michael Rasmussen, the leader in the overall standings of the Tour, had been dropped from the national team for missing two out-of-competition doping tests in the spring.

'Michael Rasmussen never should have started the Tour,' said a frustrated Patrice Clerc, head of the Amaury Sport Organization, which runs the Tour. 'The champion must be unimpeachable. An example.'

Then came the Vinokourov bombshell.

The Kazakh rider had been widely favoured to win the Tour, but injured his knees in a crash in the first week and then lost valuable time to his rivals in three mountain stages through the Alps.

He appeared to have thrust himself back into the thick of the title hunt by winning Saturday's individual time trial - before he faltered badly on Sunday, in the first stage in the Pyrenees Mountains.

Based on the A sample, it now appears that Vinokourov earned Saturday's victory with someone else's red blood cells, through a process called homologous blood transfusion, in which blood from a compatible donor is used to increase an athlete's oxygen-carrying capacity.

The sense of betrayal felt by riders and fans is all the greater because Vinokourov was a respected athlete who showed courage and grit by continuing to race hard despite his injuries.

Briton David Millar, who was banned for two years for doping and has become a fierce anti-doping spokesman, was near tears on hearing the news.

'He's one of my favourite riders,' he said. 'You can't do that to cycling, you can't do that to clean riders, you can't do that to the Tour de France.'

Tour organizers rejected suggestions that the race be halted. Clerc said: 'The Tour de France is going through hard times, with lots of damage. But there is no question of giving up, of conceding the game and leaving it to the cheaters.'

But the fate of the race may be out of his hands.

French media reported late Tuesday that the managers of the French teams in the Tour met after the Vinokourov news came out, and there are suggestions that they could strike or even drop out of the Tour in protest when the race resumes on Wednesday after a day of rest.

In addition, after the Sinkewitz revelation, some important German sponsors, such as Adidas, Audi and T-Mobile, said they were considering retiring from the Tour.

And the Paris-based International Herald Tribune reported that a number of teams will be left without sponsors at the end of this year or the next, including Lance Armstrong's former group, Discovery Channel.

Discovery Channel's press officer PJ Rabice told the paper: 'Any kind of negative publicity is a hindrance to us in finding a new sponsor. It's a tough situation.'

Even if there is no more negative publicity, the rest of the Tour - which ends Sunday in Paris - will very likely be overshadowed by the news coming out of the French anti-doping laboratory.

And the final parade down the Champs Elysees will more resemble a funeral procession than the triumphant conclusion of a great sporting event.