BLACK OR WHITE, NO GRAY IN TOUR'S FUTURE
It was either a brilliant move, or the last straw. Either the end of the Tour de France, or a new beginning.
Leader Michael Rassmussen's team removed him from the race and sent him home; not because he tested positive for doping, but because he missed two recent drug tests, one May 8, the other at the end of June. He also didn't show up for two previous random drugs tests.
Rassmussen said he was training in Mexico during that time, and had no way to get to an authorized testing facility. But a former rider for his team said he saw the Danish rider in Italy during June. The team's sponsor, Rabobank, asked that he be kicked off the team. Rassmussen is known not to be a good climber, but he has worn the leader's yellow jersey for ten days, all through the mountain stages.
Rassmussen's defense is that he has been tested every day, sometimes twice a day, since he began winnng. But fans have been booing, other racers have called him a cheater, and finally a large group of riders protested with a strike at Wednesday's stage; standing motionless as the signal was given to start.
The leader's disgrace is a good thing for Utah's Levi Leipheimer, who finished the final mountain stage only 26 seconds behind stage winner Rassmussen, and is now in third place.
But it's not good news for the tour, especially since Italian rider Cristian Moreni was also kicked off the tour Wednesday after he was found positive for testosterone. His whole team withdrew from the race. So did the Astana team after their star rider, Alexander Vinokourov, was found to have used a donor's blood transfusion to give him extra oxygen-carrying red blood cells for the mountain stages
Bouncing the big names could send the message that the world's most prestigious bicycle race is finally dead serious about a no tolerance policy; riders must truthfully inform anti-doping agencies of their whereabouts at all times and show up for testing when requested. No hiding out for 30 days until the metabolites of the joint you smoked with friends wears off or the EPO is undetectable. Give it a year or two, and the Tour could once again be headline news.
Or it could be that having three riders DQ'd this far into the race may be the last straw for fans and sponsors; who will just turn away in disgust and stop caring about the Tour. It will then go from one of the world's premier athletic events to a being little more than a parochial French bike race, perhaps a warm up for another Tour that takes the stage for fans and doesn't have the heavy baggage of dopes who dope.