So now we know who won the Tour de France: the U.S. Justice Department. (Actually it was Alberto Contador.)
In our travels the last six weeks or so the interest in the Tour de France has been surprisingly high. Not nearly as much interest as in the World Cup. But enough
The interest is not so much on the actual contest. Mostly it’s focused on the question of doping, a story first fueled by Floyd Landis’ public acknowledgment of taking performance enhancing drugs, and charges that other top riders — including Livestrong Lance — routinely took them, and then by the news that the U.S. government has a very tenacious investigator looking at the possibility of criminal charges being filed against riders and managers of some racing teams.
The most significant story that has emerged as the Tour drew to a close is the discovery that riders and teams have discovered some fairly clever ways of beating drug tests, which has led to many people feeling that even with the extensive testing done today that some of the top riders are still being aided by doping.
A New York Times blog reports that micro-dosing of the growth hormone EPO more often than not is not detected by testing and there are many people knowledgeable about bike racing who insist that doping is still widespread. The incentive to cheat is so great because of the prolonged agony of riding and the huge potential financial payoff. One rider caught cheating and suspended for two years said he would never race again because it was just too punishing. (I highly recommend reading the entire NYT posting.)
The more you hear and read about drugs, doping and bicycle racing the more pessimistic one becomes about the possibility of ever eliminating cheating in professional bike racing.
