Positive Test #1
And the winner is……
Manuel Beltran
The first rider to test positive during this year’s Tour de France. Beltran tested positive for EPO after stage #1. Beltran was a teammate of Lance Armstrong during 3 of Lance’s 7 wins (insert whatever inference that you wish). You can come to whatever conclusions you wish, but there are now five riders, by my count, that have been caught doping and have been big time players on Lance Armstong’s Tour de France teams. Just off of the top of my head, Floyd Landis, Roberto Heras, Tyler Hamilton, and now Manuel Beltran have all tested positive. Frankie Andreu never tested positive, but he admits to using EPO to help Lance win one of his Tour titles.
So all the talk about a clean tour has come to an end for yet another year. Christian Prudhomme, and the other employees at ASO, have put on a great race, but it is not a race without drugs.
The next most likely step will be Liquigas, Beltran’s team, deciding to withdraw from the Tour (maybe…they haven’t volunteered yet). The bad news will not likely be the last during the Tour. It took longer last year for scandal to arrive, and then they wouldn’t stop. There are still two full weeks of racing. I am sure there will be more to come.
One Response to “Positive Test #1”
1 teknishn 12 July 2008 @ 8:36 am
As an ex-amateur cyclist (broken back at the age of 30) I always looked up to those cyclists that rode in “The Tour”. Although my racing days are over, I am teaching my half-German, half-German Egyptian stepson about cycling. The issue of doping in cycling, especially in the Tour De France, does so seriously not help new “wannabes” and new-comers to the sport to gain confidence in their own abilities. As we all know, cycling is about personal performance and trying the exceed your own personal limits. I would like my stepson to have some heroes from the Tour De France to look up too and want to emulate.
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