Even after the biggest anti-doping sweep in cycling in years, few at the Tour de France are convinced the sport is now clean.
The house-cleaning on the eve of the Tour's July 1 start removed some of the favorites in the race's first edition of the post-Lance Armstrong era.
If there's any time when riders may be tempted to rely on blood doping to boost performance, some experts say, it's now -- when they begin three days of grueling climbs in the Alps. It will be the toughest part of the three-week race.
PHOTO: AP
The recent doping expulsions won't remedy the sport's imbedded doping culture centering on suspect doctors, unscrupulous team coaches and riders hoping for an extra edge.
"It's not because there was a big kick to their ant hill that we can let ourselves think it's finished, and that everything has been solved," said Jerome Pineau, a French rider with the Bouygues Telecom team.
The question is how to step up the battle.
PHOTO: AP
Scottish rider David Millar favors an amnesty for cyclists who come clean. The German T-Mobile team, after the scandal broke, told its riders to avoid seeing trainers or doctors whose reputations have been called into question.
Armstrong used to boast that he was the world's most tested athlete. And cycling's rulebook is already among the strictest in pro sports against performance enhancers.
All cyclists are subject to surprise year-round anti-doping tests, and many must tell the sport's authorities where they are at all times -- often by fax or via the Internet.
Doping tests are often ineffective, said Francaise des Jeux rider Carlos Da Cruz of France, because punishment is only meted out if sport officials are convinced that wrongdoing has occurred.
Patrick McQuaid, the head of cycling's governing body UCI, says no other sport ousts competitors from its events when their names turn up in doping investigations -- even before proven guilty or innocent.
That's just what happened to nine riders -- including 1997 Tour winner Jan Ullrich and Ivan Basso, who won the Giro d'Italia in May -- after their names emerged in a doping probe centering on a Spanish doctor.
The doctor, Eufemiano Fuentes, was arrested in May after Spanish police seized drugs and frozen blood at a Madrid clinic -- samples thought to have been readied for blood doping. He has denied any wrongdoing.
"I'm sure there are still other Dr. Fuentes' in the world," Pineau said. "One store has been closed, but others have been opened ... I think there are still riders trying to slip through the net."
The allegations were the biggest to rock the Tour since a scandal involving the Festina team nearly derailed the race in 1998.
Millar, a Saunier Duval rider, returned to the Tour this year from a two-year doping ban -- and says he is now clean. He's urging others to join him.
"In the next few years, the big guys in cycling have to say they are doing it clean -- They have to actually say it," he said, adding that many are afraid to do so because "they have skeletons in their closet."
Riders cover more than 3,000km in the three-week Tour. Every stage strains muscles, burns huge amounts of energy, and drains massive amounts of water from the body through sweat.
"So there's more drive to do that [doping] when ... you know it only takes small steps to get to the highest level," said T-Mobile team doctor Lothar Heinrich.
The best-known riders often face the most scrutiny.
Ullrich had 10 anti-doping controls by various agencies while training for the Tour -- including three straight surprise tests on three consecutive days after the Giro, Heinrich said.
But even with such controls, the cat-and-mouse game is likely to continue.
"It's human nature to try to cheat the system. It happens in cycling, it happens in business," said Australian Michael Rogers of T-Mobile. "You can't control everyone -- unless they want to have a chaperone that sleeps with the person every night."
A sumo star was born in Japan on Sunday when 24-year-old Takerufuji became the first wrestler in 110 years to win a top-division tournament on his debut, triumphing at the 15-day Spring Grand Sumo Tournament in Osaka despite injuring his ankle on the penultimate day. Takerufuji, whose injury had left him in a wheelchair outside the ring, shoved out the higher-ranked Gonoyama at the Edion Arena Osaka to the delight of the crowd, giving him an unassailable record of 13 wins and two losses to claim the Emperor’s Cup. “I did it just through willpower. I didn’t really know what was going
The US’ Ilia Malinin on Saturday produced six scintillating quadruple jumps, including a quadruple Axel, in the men’s free skate to capture his first figure skating world title. The 19-year-old nicknamed the “Quad god,” who is the only skater to land a quadruple Axel in competition, dazzled with an array of breathtakingly executed jumps starting with his quad Axel and including a quadruple Lutz in combination with a triple flip and a quadruple toe loop in combination with a triple toe. He added an unexpected triple-triple combination at the end to earn a world-record 227.79 in the free program for a championship
Shohei Ohtani’s interpreter is being criminally investigated by the IRS, and the attorney for his alleged bookmaker said Thursday that the ex-Los Angeles Dodgers employee placed bets on international soccer — but not baseball. The IRS confirmed Thursday that interpreter Ippei Mizuhara and Mathew Bowyer, the alleged illegal bookmaker, are under criminal investigation through the agency’s Los Angeles Field Office. IRS Criminal Investigation spokesperson Scott Villiard said he could not provide additional details. Mizuhara, 39, was fired by the Dodgers on Wednesday following reports from the Los Angeles Times and ESPN about his alleged ties to an illegal bookmaker and debts well
MLB on Friday announced a formal investigation into the scandal swirling around Shohei Ohtani and his former interpreter amid charges that the Los Angeles Dodgers superstar was the victim of “massive theft.” The Dodgers on Wednesday fired Ippei Mizuhara, Ohtani’s long-time interpreter and close friend, after Ohtani’s representatives alleged that the Japanese two-way star had been the victim of theft, which was reported to involve millions of dollars and link Mizuhara to a suspected illegal bookmaker in California. “Major League Baseball has been gathering information since we learned about the allegations involving Shohei Ohtani and Ippei Mizuhara from the news media,” MLB