KEY POINTS:
Something remarkable happened at the Tour de France yesterday; no one failed a drug test. For years, the Tour has occupied a place as one of the great events in world sport.
Spectacular scenery as a backdrop to remarkable feats of athletic endurance. Names like Jacques Anquetil, Eddy
Merckx, Bernard Hinault and Miguel Indurain stand tall in cycling's pantheon.
After this week's events - pre-race favourite Alexander Vinokourov turning in a positive drug test for blood doping; Italian Cristian Moreni following suit a day later for testosterone; and race leader Michael Rasmussen being sacked by his own team after winning Wednesday's 16th stage - enough.
Rasmussen, 33, had already played fast and loose with the truth on his movements, and had ducked four appointments with the drug testers. He claimed to be in Mexico at one point, when he was actually in Italy, which means he's either thick or dishonest.
Give his Rabobank team a measure of praise for giving him the chop - remember, he was leading the Tour at the time and likely to win it - but they could have dispatched the Dane before the Tour began. They knew of his transgressions but opted to plug on, presumably for the sake of maintaining a winning chance.
Ultimately they did the right thing, but you'd imagine they were leaned on to do so. They could have followed Vinokourov's Astana team, and Moreni's Cofidis, who fell on their swords this week, but presumably reckon they've done nothing wrong, other than employ an athlete of dubious character.
Cofidis had helped set up the Movement for Credible Cycling, in an attempt to ensure riders implicated in doping are not allowed in the race. But there's not much credible going on over there.
Six teams formed this movement; two of them, Cofidis and T-Mobile - whose Patrick Sinkewitz bailed out after a crash on stage eight, having tested positive just before the Tour - have dirty hands. Whatever, it's just the latest sordid chapter in what is becoming known as the chemists' dream, the Tour de Drugs.
And the iceberg theory applies here. Be sure there are more beneath the surface who haven't been pinged.
It's time a line was put under this annual embarrassment. Stop it for a year, and get rid of the rogues, cheats and ratbags who have infested it.
The shame is that there are good and honest people in cycling. There are those who will be mortified by this week's shenanigans - just as there were others sitting back certain that it was just a matter of time before the flag went up.
I know people who sit up all night watching every moment for the entire three weeks; who swear it's the best event of the sporting year, bar none. They are hurt by this. Again.
Last year it was American Floyd Landis; before that, for seven years, shadows dogged Lance Armstrong like a bloke wandering along a dimly lit alley on his annual march to the Champs l'Elysee finish.
There's a collection of former champions crawling out from under rocks claiming they'd taken drugs during their heyday, as if seeking exoneration and a pat on the back for finally coming clean.
Think of Bjarne Riisnts, 1996 Tour de France champion, who two months ago cheerfully admitted he won the Tour with the help of more than just healthy eating and a good night's sleep each day. He was known among riders as Mr 60 Per cent, a reference to EPO usage.
I couldn't care less who wins this Tour. It might be Spaniard Alberto Contador, who took the yellow jersey yesterday.
He missed last year's Tour after being caught up in an inquiry into doping in Spain. And so it just goes on.
But really it doesn't matter who finishes first. He will have a mental asterisk beside his name in the record books as winner in a year in which the Tour sank to its lowest point. And that's saying something.
