It would not be a Tour de France without some doping scandal. I thought that when a few of the favorites were pulled out by their teams at the start of the event due to a link with a drug laboratory, then that would be it. However, the day after the end of the Tour finished, we discover that this year’s winner Floyd Landis gave a positive test for elevated testosterone, from a sample given after his big comeback win on one of the final stages. This whole incident may go on for a long time with appeals etc, but already the damage has been done to his reputation and to the reputation of world cycling, if it could get any worse. I followed the ups and downs of the Tour for the two weeks, and even stayed up late and watched a couple of the stages. Now I feel like what I watched was not real, and I feel cheated. I feel the same disappointment whenever there is a drug scandal. The doping cloud over Lance Armstrong is never going to go away either. In an era when many of the leading cyclists are being done for drug taking, indicating that the many performances are drug assisted, here is a guy who has won seven of the events in a row. It is hard to believe that someone who is clean can dominate for so long in those conditions.
Related Pages: Tour de France, cycling, Lance Armstrong profile, Floyd Landis profile