Because of doping’s ravages on cycling, it is natural for suspicion to fall on Vincenzo Nibali, who led the Tour de France on Thursday for a 10th time in 12 stages.
However, Nibali says the sport has changed, doping cases have become rare, and “this theme belongs to the past.”
The Italian has had a praiseworthy, almost unbreakable lock on the yellow jersey, yet he will be looking over his shoulder after yesterday, as the great race was to enter two days in the Alps, which feature uphill finishes, starting with the hardest climb that the peloton has faced so far.
Photo: EPA
Off the roads, Nibali said he expected questions about doping, a scourge of much of the last generation, for whom performance-enhancers such as blood-booster EPO or human growth hormone, and methods like blood-doping were common.
Many cycling experts say the sport has greatly cleaned up its act.
However, doping’s shadow remains at the Tour, among team staffers and even a rider or two.
Nibali’s team, Astana, was kicked out of the 2007 Tour after its star rider, Alexandre Vinokourov, tested positive for banned blood transfusions. He served his ban, returned to racing, and won gold at the London Olympics. Vinokourov is now Astana’s general manager.
Rider Michele Scarponi who, like Nibali, won the Giro d’Italia and is racing in this Tour, was given a three-month ban in 2012 for seeing banned physician Michele Ferrari, a longtime adviser of Lance Armstrong.
Nibali says Astana has changed.
“I’ve chosen Astana for the possibility to build a group that I can trust to bring me at a competitive level for important races like the Giro, the Tour and the [Spanish] Vuelta,” he said. “There have been many mistakes in cycling in the past, by many riders, but they belong to the past. We now have a biological passport, out-of-competition controls, controls at home.”
“Nobody can say that cycling hasn’t changed,” Nibali said. “Nowadays, there is an isolated case. There’s always the possibility that an idiot does something stupid.”
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