More trouble for Tour
Rider tests positive for a transfusion
PAU, France -- Tour de France officials insisted yesterday their event will survive its latest crisis and that former race favorite Alexandre Vinokourov's initial positive test for a banned blood transfusion is a sign of health, not fatal illness, in their sport.
"It never crossed my mind" to end the race, said Patrice Clerc, president of Amaury Sports Organisation, the parent company that owns the event. "We've started a war without mercy, and we're not going to stop fighting."
Race director Christian Prudhomme put it in even more graphic terms.
"They're playing Russian roulette," he said of riders who continue to think they can get away with doping. "They have to get this through their heads. They need to understand our determination is total. This doesn't make me happy, but in a certain way, it shows the system is strong."
Vinokourov's positive blood test result came the day of his Stage 13 time-trial win Saturday. After that result, Tour officials immediately demanded that his team, Astana, withdraw.
Police searched the team's hotel in Pau yesterday, the day after the Astana bus (along with several others) was stopped by customs officials, showing that the antidoping fight is being conducted on several fronts.
Astana wound up suspending Vinokourov yesterday and then withdrawing as a team.
The test result follows two weeks of mostly bad news for the Tour, whose current leader, Danish rider Michael Rasmussen of the Rabobank team, has been criticized for being (at best) lax in submitting required paperwork to antidoping officials and (at worst) trying to avoid drug tests.
Clerc repeated his contention yesterday that Rabobank should not have allowed Rasmussen, who has not technically violated antidoping protocol, to start the race.
Early in the race, German antidoping authorities confirmed another Tour rider, T-Mobile's Patrik Sinkewitz, had a positive A sample test for testosterone in early June. Sinkewitz already had crashed out of the race by then, but his test result was particularly poignant given that his team has been at the forefront of antidoping efforts and has its own monitoring program.
And, of course, the Tour is still laboring with a blank space in the defending champion's spot, as Floyd Landis continues to await an arbitration panel's ruling on his positive test for synthetic testosterone after a key stage of last year's win.
Vinokourov's A sample test result, which must be confirmed by a B sample before it is considered an official positive, is on a whole different order than the Rasmussen or Sinkewitz affairs. The aggressive 33-year-old rider was the top candidate to win the race before it began in London, and has had an up-and-down odyssey since.
He crashed the first week, then seemingly made a gradual comeback to the point that he won the time trial in Albi, France, last Saturday. Vinokourov melted down in the next mountain stage and fell out of contention, only to take off on a solo breakaway on the last climb Monday to win his second stage in three days.
"Alexandre denies having manipulated his blood," Astana manager Marc Biver told the Associated Press, adding that Vinokourov believes the "blood anomalies in his body" may have resulted from the crash.
Vinokourov is known for his unconventional attacking style and finished third in the Tour in 2003. He did not race in the event last year because several riders on his team were suspended for links to the Operacion Puerto scandal in Spain, although he was not directly implicated. Vinokourov admitted before the Tour he had worked with controversial doctor Michele Ferrari, whose training methods long have been suspected to include administration of performance-enhancing drugs.
Clerc said the race had lost one of its few celebrities and blamed the rider and an antidoping system that isn't yet airtight enough to prevent this kind of bombshell from being dropped in the midst of cycling's premier event.
"Everyone feels betrayed," he said. "Today the public wants to see exploits they can believe in."
One rider with a high degree of credibility said he was both crushed and heartened by yesterday's developments. David Millar, the peloton's foremost advocate for antidoping efforts following his own confession to use of the red blood cell booster EPO and suspension three years ago, learned of the news during a routine rest day news conference.
"It's positive that he was caught, but it's a tragedy that it happened," said the 30-year-old Scot, a former time-trial world champion who rides for the Saunier-Duval team. His conversation with reporters turned dramatic after the news of Vinokourov's test result reached race headquarters.
Clearly stunned, Millar said Vinokourov was one of the riders he most admired for his strength, fight, and flair on the bike. "I really wanted to believe he was having a good day," Millar said of Vinokourov's time-trial performance before he left the news conference in tears.
It has been speculated Millar next season will jump to the US-based Slipstream team directed by former pro rider Jonathan Vaughters, who was one of the first influential industry figures to institute an independently monitored blood profiling system for his team.
Vaughters, who is in France on a business trip, would not confirm he had signed Millar but said he, like Tour officials, accepts the Vinokourov news as a natural part of the convulsions the sport is undergoing.
"Everyone wants doping to go away, but nobody wants to take the casualties," Vaughters said. "If you're really, seriously going to go after doping, the initial phase is going to be ugly. This is just the price of making it better for the up-and-comers.
"This is part of the culling process," he said. "Some races and some teams will be culled, like a herd of deer that gets too big. It's ultimately what will make the sport healthy." 