Tour de Dopes

Well, I keep saying this isn't a sports blog, but then I keep writing about sports. This one, though, is big. At least in my world.

Ivan Basso, Jan Ulrich, Oscar Sevilla, Francisco Mancebo and several other riders have been suspended from the 2006 Tour de France which starts tomorrow. All of them are suspected of doping. In all, 58 pro riders have been named in connection with a Spanish doping ring that has come to be known as Operation Puerto, the details of which have been trickling out for several weeks thanks, mostly, to the efforts of a Spanish newspaper called El Paìs.

For those of you who don't follow cycling, think of this as a confluence of the stories of Barry Bonds (doping), Sammy Sosa's corked bat (no one knew they were doping), and MLB Congressional hearings (more people were doping than we thought), all on the eve of the World Series.

Admitttedly, there has been no proof that these guys are guilty, but apparently the circumstancial evidence (which involves police raids on apartments where bags of blood and financial ledgers were found bearing the riders' names or "code names") is strong enough to convince the various team directors to suspend the riders.

There is good news and bad news here:

The good news is that these directors sportifs (team coaches) are the ones doing the suspending. Even if there is evidence that they know about that we don't that clearly proves guilt, it's a little refreshing to see those guys step up and do the suspending of their own riders rather than wait for UCI (cycling's governming body) to do it. Like Phil Ligget said, cycling has long been on the front lines of the battle against doping in sports. Now, cycling seems to be voluntarily taking it on the chin again.

For the U.S., there is also good news that none of the names released today in connection with Operation Puerto are American. In fact, all but a few of the accussed riders are Spanish. (The one exception is Tyler Hamilton who retired last year after being found guilty of doping. I've seen his name mentioned in stories about Operation Puerto, but to be honest, I'm not sure if he was connected with this particular "doctor" or someone else.)

The bad news is that this ruins my fantasy TdF league and will probably ruin this year's Tour for many American fans. It opens the door for more American riders to win, but the whole race will be overshadowed by the doping story, much like the Festina scandal in 1998 in which Marco Pantani was a primary player and now every time a commentator mentions Pantani's wins or records, you have to wonder if they should have an asterisk by them.

Of course, the other bad thing about this is the timing. I suppose that was dictated by El Paìs. I wonder how long they sat on names in order to release them the day before the Tour. Maybe there are other things at work but it seems like a dirty trick. With the TdF field set, none of the suspended riders will be replaced on their teams. This is also the first year for new TdF director Christian Prudhomme. Welcome to Pro Cycling, Chrissy.

The whole thing would, of course, be less frustrating if we had all the facts or at least a clearer picture of the facts that UCI has. European journalism is maddening in its refusal to attribute. They're good at using the words "alleged" and "suspected" but not good at telling us what lead to allegations and suspicion.

Oh well, I'll still watch. And we can all pull for Floyd Landis. If the Mennonite is doping, then we really are in trouble.