Operacion Puerto Blows Up Tour de France

Anyone who knows me expects to read a great deal about the Tour in the month of July, but what was shaping up to be an intriguing launch into the post-Lance era turned into chaos as several top contenders were ousted because of their ties to an alleged doping program being investigated in Spain. The story has been developing for a few weeks, but really blew up in the last 48 hours as more than 50 riders' names were released in relation to the investigation including the two big favorites, 1997 winner Jan Ullrich and last year's runner-up and current Giro d'Italia champ Ivan Basso. While nothing official has been brought against the riders, their teams have suspended them from the Tour along with several other riders including Francisco Mancebo (4th place last year) and Joseba Beloki (a former runner up to Lance) among others.

These suspensions follow hard on the heels of the race organization's decision to uninvite the Comunidad Valenciana team and attempts to boot the Astana-Wurth team because of team officials' ties to the investigation. Astana-Wurth was given a reprieve by the Court of Arbitration for Sport which decided the team could not be left out because of it's status as a Pro-Tour team which gave it automatic inclusion in the Tour field. The importance of that decision is that Alexandre Vinokourov, one of the Tour's great catalysts will be allowed to ride. Vino was not implicated in the investigation.

The Tour starts tomorrow and I'm sure we'll see more riders sent home before the day is out as teams decide how best to deal with any riders on their rosters with links to Operacion Puerto.

So, where does this leave this year's Tour. Nowhere good. The winner will still claim the prize and be able to add their name to the history books as a champion of the Tour de France, but will always be remembered as the guy who won it during one of cycling's biggest scandals. It is reminiscent of the 1998 "Festina Affair" when the French Festina team was booted and many teams were investigated after a team car loaded with doping products was stopped at the French border during the first week of the 1998 Tour, but this situation, I believe, is more far reaching and will have a larger impact on the future of the sport.

On the positive side for American fans, the only U.S. rider implicated, thus far, has been Tyler Hamilton who is already serving a suspension for doping at the 2004 Tour of Spain. Another positive is that guys like Levi Leipheimer, Floyd Landis and George Hincapie are now vaulted to the ranks of those most likely to win instead of simply being hopes for a podium spot. It's small consolation for those of us that have followed the sport for 20+ years, but will probably help keep the Tour in the news in the U.S. more for the race than for the scandal.

Other riders whose stock rises with the ouster of Ullrich, Basso and Mancebo are guys like Vinokourov (if Tour organizers don't boot the team), Alejandro Valverde and Denis Menchov (if he isn't booted by his team). It opens an already wide open Tour even further to guys that probably only had aspirations for a top 10 finish in Paris and makes them strong podium contenders.

I love this sport and I'm absolutely sick to see the Tour start this way. I'll still watch, still love the racing, still engrave the important moments in my memory alongside those that have happened since I started watching as a kid, but I'll always wonder what it would have been like with all of the best riders in the sport in attendance. I'll also watch with a great deal of concern for the future of a historically beautiful sport.