Doping at The 2007 Tour de France - Reaction To Events During The Tour

Reaction To Events During The Tour

Prior to Rasmussen's exit, the doping revelations of Sinkewitz and Vinokourov had been met with defiance by the UCI, the Tour organizers and the majority of the European press (with certain exceptions) however, with Rasmussen's sacking whilst wearing the yellow jersey (no rider had previously been withdrawn from the race while leading), the mood became more pessimistic, with the exception of Tour director Christian Prudhomme who publicly regarded the Dane's withdrawal as "the best thing that can happen to the Tour. The race will go on for the rest of the riders and we believe it would be an insult to them to stop the race. We believe the general classification is much better now than it was."

Prudhomme's reaction was in contrast to the French newspapers. France Soir ran a mock death notice declaring the Tour had died "at age 104, after a long illness." Declaring further: "The Tour is clinically dead. It is a broken toy, a burst soap bubble popped by careless kids, unaware that they are damaging themselves, their health and their childhood dreams as well...It's all the more painful as we had almost begun to believe in the Tour again... in these soap-and-water cyclists who we were so ready to love. But instead of dreams, the last 48 hours have been a living nightmare."

A similar editorial in Le Figaro announced: "It really doesn't matter who wins the Tour. The 2007 edition died on 24 July on the heights of Loudenvielle...Killed by Alexandre Vinokourov, idolised by the media and cycling fans, but revealed to have the blood of another running in his veins on the finishing line. Damn Vinokourov! He sullied the infinite beauty of the Pyrenees, dirtied cycling a little more and further discredited the Tour de France."

Another French newspaper, Libération's editorial demanded "The Tour must be stopped", describing the procession of cyclists as a "caravan of ridicule".

The British popular media who had previously acclaimed the success of the Tour's prologue in London and the first stage through Kent, were similarly critical calling it the Tour de Farce (Daily Mirror) and declaring it a "Corrupt race populated by a cast of frauds heading straight into the gutter" (The Times). Swiss newspaper Tages-Anzeiger reduced its coverage of the race in protest to minimal reporting of results and full reporting of any doping stories.

German television broadcasters ARD and ZDF stopped covering the race (after they vowed to in the Tour prelude) when Patrik Sinkewitz was revealed to have tested positive following Stage 8. Most other media decided to stay, and some even criticised the German decision.

Sponsors similarly indicated their unwillingness to continue to support a sport dogged by scandal, most noticeably Gerolsteiner and T-Mobile (the latter subsequently withdrew from sponsoring cycling later in the year). Team Rabobank's head of sponsorship Heleen Crielaard reacted to the Rasmussen dismissal stating: "We are a bank and we want to be reliable. One thing we definitely do not appreciate is lying..." although denied suggestions that they had influenced the decision to sack the rider.

Despite calls for the Tour to be cancelled mid-race, the race continued principally on the basis that the race itself and its history is bigger than individual events.

UCI director Pat McQuaid urged team directors and the riders to take responsibility:

"The teams need to have more control over their riders.."They are the ones who need to clean out the riders who are iffy, they need to ensure they can guarantee that everyone of their riders is riding clean and riding fairly. The evidence is that most of the time these riders are dealing with individuals from outside their team and the sport whether it be pseudo doctors and chemists who are promising them things. That has got to stop. More and more riders...are speaking out and it's the younger generation of riders coming in that are going to be the future of the sport. They have to come into a system that is completely ethically correct. But at the end of the day, the rider is the one who makes the decisions..We are in the process of changing that culture and it will change in time. We need to weed out the bad apples. I hope next year we have a Tour de France with no positive tests. We've had two bad Tour de Frances, we cannot afford a third."

Eddy Merckx who had won the Tour on five occasions, commented: "my heart is no longer in it" in response to his support for the Tour. Another Belgian rider Johan Museeuw (who had previously received a two-year ban for doping), suggested doping and drug use were a possible consequence of the difficulty of riding the Tour in its current format. Questioning why stages had to be so long and including several arduous 'out-of-category' mountain climbs. However, Prudhomme defended the Tour telling reporters that "you do not cheat because it is too hard, you cheat because you want to be first."

Following Vinokourov's exit, Patrice Clerc president of Tour organisers Amaury Sport Organisation (ASO) stated: "I am not downcast and I am all the more determined to go all the way in this fight...It may seem paradoxical but we are closing in on victory. I have been saying we have started a merciless war against doping...We live in dark times and it is out of the question to give up, it is out of the question to leave the place to those who cheat."

Particularly strong reaction came from Jean-Francois Lamour, vice president of the World Anti-Doping Agency who called for the Tour de France to be banned entirely and for road cycling to be withdrawn from the Olympic Games and former British Olympic Association chairman Sir Craig Reedie suggested that road cyclists might be required to hold an "anti-doping passport".

French Prime Minister François Fillon attempted to stem the tide of negativity stating: "Obviously this gives a disastrous image of the Tour de France, but at the same time, if we encourage the organisers, we can clean up French sports and in particular cycling"; whilst Nicolas Sarkozy, the French president, demonstrated support by joining the Tour and following the race leaders in the Tour director's car.

Prior to Stage 16 a group of riders from eight teams - six from France plus German outfits Team Gerolsteiner and T-Mobile Team - forming the Mouvement pour un cyclisme crédible (or Movement for Credible Cycling), delayed the start of the Tour by thirteen minutes asking for all teams to abide by their good behaviour charter of 2005, under which teams are requested to avoid fielding riders implicated in doping affairs. The protest was in obvious contrast to the 1998 reaction which was at odds with authorities, protesting at the heavy-handed treatment of riders.

Tour riders generally remained positive however. Fabian Cancellara, Cedric Vasseur and David Millar all stated publicly that they believed the consensus among riders in the peloton was that anti-doping measures were effective and the sport would continue to benefit from the harder line.