The Tour de France And The Road Ahead

Christian Prudhomme Tour de France

It should be one of the best jobs in cycling but Tour director Christian Prudhomme keeps finding his efforts to promote the world’s biggest race thwarted by its past. As much as he wants to promote next summer’s route he’ll also have to look back to the Armstrong years. These days no preview seems complete without a moment of retrospective regret.

A former journalist and broadcaster, Prudhomme is skilled with words and presentation so expect a good show – it’ll be streamed live on the web. The 2013 Tour will be unveiled with a message of hope for the future and a nod to the past, especially as the next Tour will be the 100th edition, le Tour du centenaire.

Only perhaps it’s time for the Tour de France to announce more than route planning? It won’t happen tomorrow but the race and its parent company dominate the sport like no other and hold the keys and the purse-strings to help clean up the sport. Nobody else has as much power.

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The UCI and Armstrong: History Rewritten or Repeated?

Today Lance Armstrong has been stripped of his seven wins in the Tour de France as the UCI announced it would accept the USADA decision in full.

The enormity of taking down Armstrong turns what was once the best story in sport into another shameful chapter of the doping encyclopaedia, although this much we knew from the USADA verdict.

But today also showed the UCI seems reluctant to change after a disastrous press conference which revealed immobility and confusion, right at the time when the sport is desperate for leadership and reform.

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Judgement Day

Today sees the UCI hold a press conference to present its verdict on USADA’s reasoned decision. It’s a monumental day as we could see the results of the Tour de France from 1999-2005 overturned, the final pen stroke that strips Armstrong of his wins and maybe his status and dignity too. It’s true, the Tour de France never quite ends on the Champs Elysées, instead the result will be announced in the conference room of a Swiss hotel.

Until the conference begins all we know is that the press conference happens at lunchtime in Geneva, Switzerland and we will have UCI President Pat McQuaid, Chief Doctor Mario Zorzoli and Francesca Rossi the anti-doping official who sadly only appears on set-piece occasions. Ahead of this I wanted to think about the issues for consideration and things to look for and I’ve written a few down.

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Christophe Bassons Given One Year Doping Ban

I can reassure readers that the 20 October is a normal day in France. The first day of April is reserved for poisson d’avril jokes. The news that Christophe Bassons has been given a one year ban for missing an anti-doping control is no laughing matter.

How did this happen? Should he banned? Here’s a look at the case, the rules and more.

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Rabobank Close Their Account

Rabobank Team

Dutch bank Rabobank has announced it will quit men’s pro cycling at the end of this year. The team will continue for 2013, only with a blank jersey funded by the contractual obligations left behind.

It’s another shock for the sport, especially since the team was finally trying to put its past behind it. Indeed one of the characteristics of the USADA report and other scandals is that they tend to drive out the good guys. Worse this might not be the last sponsor to flee.

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The Madness of Zero Tolerance

Lawrence County

I don’t know much about Lawrence County in South Dakota but I bet they have a drugs problem. The idea of “zero tolerance” sounds good, no? But in fact the risk is that it only entrenches a problem rather than addressing it. Only forget narcotics, this is a cycling blog so let’s think EPO and steroids.

Team Sky have announced they will comb through their rider and staff list and ask them to sign a document stating whether they have had any past or present involvement in doping. It sounds right but could end up achieving the opposite of what’s needed, leaving the cheats in place and the team looking stupid.

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The End of Euskadi

With new sponsorship secured for several years, a plan in place and fresh management the future of the Euskaltel-Euskadi team is secure.

Yet in order to survive the team is changing so much that its identity and attitude could be gone. A team famous for its attacking style could now end up with the soul of a spreadsheet and the spirit of a rulebook.

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Doping and The Myth of A Level Playing Field

There are some who say that because almost every overall contender in the Tour de France was doping it doesn’t make much difference to the result. They were all at it so the results would have been the same if they were all clean right?

Only no, that’s not true. The idea of a “level playing field” amongst cheats in any sport is a myth so phoney that it has to be reviewed and shot to pieces.

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Rising From Ashes Film

6,000km away from the UCI headquarters in Aigle, Switzerland lie the red roads of Rwanda.

If it’s been a heavy week of revelations, rules and more that takes us too far from what cycling should be about, the film trailer above is a reminder that there so much more. It feels a million miles away from the troubles of pro cycling.

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Bruyneel Quits, What’s Next?

Today brought the news that Johan Bruyneel will stop as general manager of the Radioshack-Nissan team. The decision seems obvious given his name appears 129 times in the USADA reasoned decision but note today’s team press release said he “contests the validity of the procedure as well as the charges against him.”

Yet there good grounds for his departure before the USADA report was published, for example the team’s dismal performance. And if he’s gone, there’s still a team in need of new direction plus the removal of one director on one team only makes us look at the other squads.

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