Rose Cantine

It’s 15:00 in Amsterdam and everyone is dying to know who else was trapped using banned substances. The Tour de France organizers announced that another case of doping was discovered after one of the samples taken after stage 11. They have not told anyone who it is yet. The last Pyrenees stage began today with a lot of controversy over the departure of the Astana team after yesterday’s scandal involving Alexander Vinokourov, who continues to deny, despite overwhelming evidence, that he got a transfusion of someone else’s blood.

There’s a power struggle going on between UCI (the cyclists’ union) and the Tour de France organization. The Tour de France says they would never have Michael Rasmussen join the Tour if they had been told ahead of time by the UCI that Rasmussen had not informed the UCI on his whereabouts during pre-Tour training. Riders are required to tell the UCI where they are so they can be tested during out-of-competition periods. The UCI maintains that Rasmussen did not violate the regulations of the UCI — it was an administrative error, as Rasmussen insisted in a press conference yesterday. Indeed, the actual record-keeping requirement imposed on the riders is very complex and according to one sports commentator, would give anyone a headache.

The Tour de France and other race organizers such as the Giro d’Italia and the Vuelta in Spain want to take control over testing and qualifying (away from the UCI). Many riders are very unhappy that they are pawns caught in the power struggle between the UCI and various race organizers. In the meantime, a lot of sponsors are seriously thinking of whether they want to continue sponsoring this sport, which has been getting more bad than good news lately.

UPDATE: The rider caught using banned substances is Cristian Moreni from the Cofidis team.