Hot off the news wires: On the day before race begins, the two favorites to win the Tour de France have been suspended from the race because of doping allegations.
Ivan Basso, winner of the Giro d'Italia, and
Jan Ullrich, my sentimental favorite, are out of the race. Many, many other riders, as well, have been suspended.
It all stems from a Spanish doctor whose offices were raided a month or so ago. Samples of riders' blood, extensive documentation, blood doping equipment and drugs have all been found. The Spanish government issued a 500 page report and has released it to the organizers of the Tour. In Ullrich's case, he had previously sworn to his team, T-mobile, that he never had any contact with that doctor, and when the team was presented with the proof, they themselves suspended the rider. With many of the other riders, it was up to the Tour de France officials to make the suspensions. My hat is off to the T-mobile sports director for acting proactively.
So, where does that leave us in the tour? Well, there may be a few more suspensions today... Probably up to 20 or so. Some of the big names of riding, besides Basso and Ullrich have been implicated. The Discovery Channel team seems not to be implicated. They have some extremely strong riders, too. George Hincapie seems to be in good form, although he isn't as much of a mountain man as I would like. Yaroslav Popovych (Popo) is a great all-around rider and destined to be a Tour de France winner some day, so maybe this is his year. Paolo Savoldelli, last year's winner of the Giro has what it takes, if he's not too tired from this year's Giro.
Outside of the Discovery team, Americans Floyd Landis and Levi Leipheimer both have a great chance. Floyd has lost several of his Phonac teammates to the scandal but none of them were set to ride in the Tour so he is a realistic favorite now; he has won most of his races this year and is looking better than ever before. Levi always seems to finish in the top ten of the Tour and it appears that his team, Gerolsteiner, has been above the scandals. Levi is also quite popular among the riders, so he has a realistic chance, even if his team isn't as strong as the Discovery Channel team.
So, with all said and done, it could be Americans on the stand at the end of the Tour. Boy, would that piss off the French who are very tired of Americans winning each year (10 times in the last 20 Tours de France).
Update: BeninSC has posted a great diary giving background to this story.