clock menu more-arrow no yes mobile

Filed under:

The Clean Tour? Stay Tuned...

The CN Notes have an item (curiously far down) suggesting the really big shoe is about to drop on Operacion Puerto. Team managers are expected to meet with Pat McQuaid on June 19 (week from today) to discuss the matter, and German press via Hans-Michael Holczner (Gerolsteiner DS) are speculating that it will involve a list of riders who cannot ride the Tour de France.

The Kölner Express newspaper said that it is expected that the UCI will announce after the meeting which riders will not be allowed to ride the Tour this year because of their involvement in Operación Puerto. There is allegedly a list of 53 to 58 riders. It is further speculated that others who are not involved in the Spanish doping affair but who have confessed to being involved in the Telekom 1990s doping scandal, could also be rejected from the Tour - for example, Erik Zabel of Team Milram, Sport Director Rolf Aldag and Directeur Sportif Brian Holm of Team T-Mobile, and CSC Team Manager Bjarne Riis. Also mentioned in Walter Godefroot, advisor to Team Astana, who has denied any involvement with the Telekom 1990s doping scandal.

A clean Tour? That's certainly the goal, and excluding parties tainted with the OP stain -- as shown by some amount of tangible evidence -- is probably a necessary step. For once, the Tour and the UCI are on the same page, and taking steps in a sane manner, not the day before the race starts. Given how the subject of doping disappeared during the Giro and was replaced by great racing, one can only hope that whatever comes out of this seminal meeting will also clear the way for cleaner Cycling.