The 2008 Tour de France is well underway, but that and a baguette will get you a mouthful of bread. After some years of fledgling American interest in the Tour due to Lance Armstrong and Floyd Landis, this year’s Tour de France has kindled about as much notice as an African civil war.
It all comes down to doping, an unsavory topic that dominates most of the Tour’s media coverage. Fans are turned off by the suspicion that most top cyclists are using performance-enhancing drugs, and the Tour’s credibility suffered a severe blow when last year’s winner Floyd Landis forfeited his title after testing positive for synthetic testosterone. Many other renowned cyclists have been forced to sit out of this year’s Tour due to previous doping violations. Though this year’s crop of riders pinky-sweared to race dope-free and restore the sport’s credibility, already there have been 4 riders thrown out for “doping practices”.
Mr. Pinault has long contended that all top cyclists (including Lance Armstrong) must be doping… except the French ones. He points out how a French rider won an early stage this year, but then quickly fell back in the rankings. If a cyclist races like hell one day, how can they repeat the performance day in, day out, for 21 punishing stages and 2211 miles, without doping?
I’m not as cynical, or else I’m more naive. I like to think that Lance Armstrong accomplished his feats because he is superhuman. I like to think that Floyd Landis, that nice Mennonite boy from Lancaster, was the victim of a witchhunt. But I also know that people who reach the pinnacle of their profession are highly competitive and not likely to pass up on any advantage, however ethically dubious it may be. Doping will continue to haunt the Tour de France, as it does most major sports competitions, and it is left to the fans to sort through all the gruff to find their heroes and their inspirations.
