VARIOUS: CYCLING/CYCLE RACING: Tour de France reaches its final day after series of failed dope tests

Record ID: 335250

  • Title: VARIOUS: CYCLING/CYCLE RACING: Tour de France reaches its final day after series of failed dope tests
  • Date: 30th July 2007
  • Summary: (LONDON, ENGLAND, UNITED KINGDOM) (RECENT - JULY 5 2007) (REUTERS) PATRIK SINKEWITZ OF T-MOBILE TEAM TAKES OFF SHIRT AND CLIMBS ONTO MEDICAL COUCH FOR MEDICAL EXAMINATION
  • Embargoed: 14th August 2007 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Topics: Sports
  • Reuters ID: LVAC8FCBZ512XYC5TVK44G6KZNWE
  • Story Text: The Tour de France comes to an end in Paris on Sunday (July 29) after an unprecedented series of doping scandals that have undermined the sport, but given hope to those who want to see cheating detected.
    The Tour began in London with huge support for the prologue around central London and the first stage from London to Canterbury.
    It was after the Tour moved to France that drug tests came back positive.
    First the German rider Patrik Sinkewitz was suspended by his T-Mobile team when a dope test conducted in June showed heightened levels of testosterone. The "B" sample analysis is due after the Tour is over, and Sinkewitz has denied any wrong-doing.
    Next the whole Astana team were withdrawn from the Tour when their leader, Alexander Vinokourov of Kazakhstan, tested positive for blood doping.
    Again he denied wrong-doing and has questioned the competence of the French laboratory (LNDD) that tested him.
    The French sports daily L'Equipe announced on its Web site (www.lequipe.fr) on Saturday (July 28) that the B sample also tested positive.
    Neither the Tour organisers nor the UCI, the French Anti-Doping Agency and the Astana team could confirm the information.
    The Kazakh now faces a two-year ban from cycling and, according to the anti-doping charter of the sport's governing body UCI, he will have to pay a fine equal to a year's salary.
    The Cofidis team also withdrew when Italy's Cristian Moreni tested positive for testosterone following the 11th stage of the Tour.
    Next pressure grew on the wearer of the yellow jersey, the climber Michael Rasmussen of Denmark. His national cycling association revealed it would not be selecting him to represent Denmark in future because he had missed two doping tests. Rasmussen pointed out that it was only an offence if he had missed three tests. He explained that he had been in Mexico when the authorities had tried to contact him.
    However a former rider claimed to have met Rasmussen in Italy during the time that he was supposed to be in Mexico. Rasmussen, overall leader of the Tour, was summoned to explain himself by his Rabobank team, which sacked him shortly afterwards for lying about his whereabouts.
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