Flutterby™! : Tour de France doping scandal 2006-06-30 15:36:03.899506+00

Tour de France doping scandal

2006-06-30 15:36:03.899506+00 by Dan Lyke 2 comments

Since I'm gonna try to somewhat follow the Tour de France (note subtle goatse reference in graphic design of the page) this year, and it kicks off tomorrow: Top contenders removed from the Tour de France in doping scandal:

[Ivan] Basso, winner of the Giro d'Italia, and [Jan] Ullrich — the 1997 Tour winner and a five-time runner-up — were among more than 50 cyclists said to have been implicated in a Spanish doping probe that has rocked the sport for weeks.

From my reading of this and several other stories it looks as though Ullrich was pulled by his team, and not by race officials.

That's what I've gotten from several articles on it. The Jan was pulled by his team. They pulled him after seeing the full report, so I think they saw something that scared them, and they also took into consideration his signed affadavit stating he'd no contact with "the good doctor," only to find that affadavit may not have been honest.

Basso too was pulled, not by the TdF but by his team. Each has the opportunity to prove their innocence if they can, but the teams felt it better to not run them anyway.

I have to admit, saddened as I am by this scandal the cycling community on the whole is handling it with more honor than, say, baseball.

It gets curioser and curioser... It appears that Ullrich and Basso were suspended based on sworn statements to their teams that they had no contact with Labarta, where Labarta's statements link him to Basso and someone named Jan. There's also lots of uproar as to whether this is the Spanish cycling association playing politics or actual evidence.