This Is the Tour de France That Was

Seeing replays of this year's rogue's gallery — Sinkewitz, Vino, Moreni and Rasmussen — reminded me of the strangeness of the 2007 Tour de France.

One day's hero was the next day's heel. It will certainly go down as one of the most bizarre Tours in history. I hope there's never another one like it.

It seems like ages ago that the Tour started in London for the first time in history. Everything was good. Trouble began about a week later.

First doper

News leaked that T-Mobile cyclist Patrik Sinkewitz had been suspended from pro cycling for suspected testosterone doping. At this point, Sinkewitz was already out of the Tour because of injuries from running into a spectator. That didn't stop two German TV networks, already fed up with earlier doping revelations, from pulling the plug on Tour coverage.

That was nothing compared to the next case. Pre-race favorite Alexander Vinokourov had fallen in Stage 5, severely injuring both knees. In spite of his injuries — more than 60 stitches — he survived the Alps and, to everyone's amazement, performed a heroic win in the Stage 13 individual time trial.

But he lost 30 minutes in Stage 14, then exploded in the second day in the Pyrenees for another stage win on Monday. The next day we learn that Vinokourov tested positive for blood doping in Stage 13. Vino is kicked out of the Tour and Astana folds up its tents and leaves, abandoning Andreas Kloden (5th overall) and Andrey Kashechkin (8th overall) as well.

After Wednesday's Stage 16, we learn that Cristian Moreni, 34, a cyclist sitting in 54th place overall, has been kicked out after a positive test in following the 11th Stage. (Why the hell is a 54th place rider doping? To stay above 55th?) The Cofidis sponsors pull the entire team off the peloton.

Yellow jersey

Later that same day comes a bigger blow — Danish cyclist Michael Rasmussen is kicked off the Tour by his own team. Rasmussen has been in the yellow jersey since the 8th stage, but was dogged the entire time by questions regarding his whereabouts during pre-Tour training.

While Rasmussen said he was in sunny Mexico when the UCI wanted him tested, a former cyclist goes on TV to say he saw him in Italy in June. The Dane admits to his Rabobank team manager that, yes, he was in Italy for a while. The Rabobank sponsors demand that he be booted for lying to team officials.

Tour in history

So this Tour will be remembered in one of two ways.

2007 might be noted as the beginning of the downhill slide for the bike race — the year when sponsors stopped risking their reputation on promoting teams of dopers and fans got fed up with disappointments about doping.

Or it will be remembered as the year when race organizers and cycling's regulatory body finally showed they were serious about cracking down on the dopers and cheaters in the peloton and scared the entire sport into cleaning up.

We may not know for awhile.