It’s Almost Tour Time! June 26, 2007
Posted by Steve in : Tour De France , trackback
As we get close to the Fourth of July, I begin to get excited for the Tour de France, the toughest three weeks in sport. I love to watch the race highlights each night, as the riders cover more than 3, 550 kilometers. The race runs from Saturday July 7th to Sunday July 29th 2007. This is the 94th running of the Tour de France and the race course will be made up of a prologue and 20 stages and will cover a total distance of 3,550 kilometres, as the riders encounter 11 flat stages, 6 mountain stages,1 medium mountain stage, and 2 individual time-trial stages.
This year, the Tour is mired in doping muck, but race leader Christian Prudhomme is putting down the hammer to ensure this is a clean race this year. He commented to Reuters, “The Tour de France has been wounded by doping scandals and must now work to restore its image. Yes, the Tour has been damaged, but it is strong. What other event could resist what’s happening the way it has?”
Last year, American Floyd Landis tested positive for testosterone on his way to victory and is unlikely to learn the outcome of his doping hearing before this year’s Tour, in which he will not take part, starts from London on July 7. The Tour also suffered another blow last month when Dane Bjarne Riis, the 1996 winner, said he had used banned drugs between 1993 and 1998.
“The Tour must regain its credibility and its dignity,” Prudhomme told Le Monde. “Today, the will (to fight doping) is there because doping is the enemy of the Tour.” Tour organizers have urged teams not to enter any rider involved in the doping investigation in Spain known as Operacion Puerto. Prudhomme said only riders who fully accept the anti-doping rules would be allowed to compete. “We will oppose the presence at the start of the Tour of any rider who will not have signed the International Cycling Union’s anti-doping charter,” he said, adding that race organizers would take the matter to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) if needed.
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