Alexander Vinokourov - 2007 Tour de France Doping

2007 Tour De France Doping

Vinokourov started the 2007 Tour de France as a definite "Yellow jersey favourite," with a new team backed by the same Kazakh sponsors who had taken over Liberty Seguros in 2006 – Astana. The Tour started well for Vino when he placed 7th in the London prologue, losing a mere 30 seconds to time-trial specialist Fabian Cancellara. Vino was ranked inside the top-10 through the second stage, and he easily remained in contention for the overall until the fifth stage, when disaster struck. As the peloton accelerated before the final climb, Vinokourov fell heavily at high speed and tumbled into a ditch with 25k to go. He suffered severe cuts and abrasions to both knees and elbows, and serious bruising to his right buttock. The wounded Kazakh could be seen standing in agony on the left side of the road, gesticulating in despair while a frantic teammate struggled to fix his leader's damaged bike.

Perhaps breaching cycling's unwritten rules of etiquette, the main field did not slow to allow Vinokourov to reintegrate with the bunch, but instead raced mercilessly on towards the finish in Autun. Vino remounted and began a desperate chase, calling back seven of his eight teammates to help his bid to regain the leaders. The Astana train relentlessly pursued the favorites, until Vinokourov himself had to surge ahead of his companions and lead the last wave of the chase. When Vino crossed the line, he finished 1–20 behind his main rivals, all of whom arrived together.

After the dramatic crash and the serious injuries, Vino expectantly lost time in the Alps, and he was dismissed from the list of GC contenders.

Despite his injuries, and after seemingly being written off by the press and his rivals, Vinokourov rallied and won the first individual time trial by 1:14 from Cadel Evans. With tranquility and some modesty, Vino explained:

"I am happy with my performance, I am finding my legs again. Now I want to attack in the Pyrénées. I want to thank everyone in and around the team that encouraged me to get through the Alps."

He also won stage 15, a mountain stage finishing in Loudenvielle.

The following day, on 24 July, Vinokourov failed the doping control following his time trial victory. His blood had a double population of erythrocytes, which implied a homologous transfusion. He delivered a positive for blood doping on 24 July 2007.

As a result, his Astana team pulled out after being requested to withdraw by ASO president Patrice Clerc

Vinokourov's B sample came back positive a few days later, and Cadel Evans was declared winner of stage 13. Vinokourov was stripped of his stage 15 victory, which was awarded to Kim Kirchen of Luxembourg. According to Phil Liggett, long-time commentator for the Tour, "It is incomprehensible that Vinokourov could do such a thing when he must have known he was under suspicion because of his dealing with disgraced doctor Michele Ferrari in Italy. He must have known he would be tested at every opportunity, and the time trial was the perfect occasion."

Vinokourov received a one-year suspension from the Kazakhstan cycling federation The UCI was angered by the short ban—a lighter sentence than those received by other cyclists found guilty, such as Tyler Hamilton and Ivan Basso--which would allow him to ride in the 2008 Beijing Olympics. His team Astana then threatened to sue Vinokourov for damages, as did Cadel Evans and team Predictor-Lotto, due to the publicity they lost for Evans not being named the winner at the time of the stage.

In December 2007, Vinokourov announced his retirement.