Tour Under Doping Cloud

Many thought that the scandal that overshadowed the 2006 Tour was the largest of all time and the investigation that followed would finally uncover the nefarious networks which operate under the radar of the sport's authorities.

Before last year's race, stars like Jan Ullrich and Ivan Basso were excluded with almost 50 other riders due to their alleged associations with the man at the center of a blood-doping circle, the Spaniard Eufemianos Fuentes. The race went ahead regardless only for the eventual winner, the American Floyd Landis, to be revealed as a drug cheat a few days after celebrating his success on the Champs-Elysee.

And yet, despite the admissions, revelations and recriminations arising from the 2006 Tour, the 2007 race could be an even more disgraced event. With the prelude to the race scheduled for Saturday, the field of riders is far from being confirmed due to a large number of question marks hanging over many helmeted heads.

More than 50 riders remain major doubts for the race this year, including co-favorites Jens Voigt and Andreas Klöden. These riders have yet to be signed off by the anti-doping officials of the world cycling federation, the Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI). Without UCI approval, riders cannot take part.

"Anyone who has a doping suspicion hanging over them at the start need not turn up for the event," Tour de France chief Christian Prudhomme has said.

While the riders themselves are likely to suffer from being tarred with the doping brush if found to have been involved, the sport is suffering not only from having its reputation repeatedly dragged through the mud but also through the effect the scandals have on sponsorship.

"That (sponsors) should abandon a system that is manipulated, faked and full of cheats is only normal," says Josef Hackforth, professor for sport, media and communication at the Munich University of Technology.

Few top names not tarred with the scandal brush

Few would argue against that, considering the state of the sport at the moment. Virtually every top rider of the last few years has come under suspicion of being involved in doping. At least 58 riders are known to have been working with the shamed Fuentes.

In recent months 1996 Tour de France winner Bjarne Riis has admitted using performance-enhancing drugs, as have former teammates from Deutsche Telekom's group, formerly Team Telekom: Eric Zabel, Udo Bölts, Bert Dietz, Christian Henn and Rolf Aldag.

Meanwhile, despite admissions from a former Team Telekom masseur that he injected the rider with the banned blood-boosting drug erythropoietin (EPO), 1997 tour winner Jan Ullrich has maintained his silence, neither confirming nor denying the allegations made against him.

Jaksche reveals permissive drug culture

If anyone was still in any doubt that cycling was a secretly permissive environment where doping was practiced, encouraged and tolerated, the interview German rider Jörg Jaksche gave to the newsmagazine Der Spiegel in June erased any misconceptions that doping in cycling was just a list of individual indiscretions.

After years of denials and silence, Jaksche admitted using banned substances throughout his career with a number of teams. But more shockingly, Jaksche revealed that he had been urged by various team bosses to take the drugs.

Jaksche now claims to be clean and that the new controls on riders are making cycling less contaminated than at any time in the last ten years. Team Gerolsteiner boss Hans-Michael Holczer agrees but adds, "The tour is cleaner than in the past but it is still not clean."

Fans and media need to take a stand

For cycling to survive, Josef Hackforth believes, it needs a shock to the system like the sudden and mass exodus of fans not willing to put up with supporting a sport that is riddled with the doping disease.

"If the spectators say: we are not interested any more, then cycling would have to act," he said.

"However, this is an illusion. One stage of the Giro D'Italia attracted five million television viewers and hundreds of thousands lined the route. It seems the interest in these heroes on two wheels refuses to wane despite the doping scandals."

Hackforth also believes the media can play its part but, specifically in Germany where public broadcaster ARD has come under huge criticism for its bias to Team Telekom, many channels and outlets are under their own pressure to avoid the doping question.

In a recent survey in Germany, two-thirds of the respondents said that their interest in tour coverage would drop off if there was continued reporting on doping allegations. With ratings at stake, it remains unlikely that the media will be doing its bit to force cycling to clean up.