'Time to boycott the Tour de Farce'

It was this time last year when, after yet another story of doping in the Tour de France, I turned to a colleague and told him I was sick and tired of trying to provide coverage of a supposedly world famous sports event which was constantly being dragged into disgrace over almost daily stories of riders getting caught after taking illegal substances.

It was last year when several German and French newspapers and TV stations actually stopped reporting on the Tour de France because they, too, were disillusioned at what was going on.

At the time, I suggested to this colleague that the Daily News, too, stop reporting on what has often been referred to as the Tour de Farce.

A year later and I reckoned that my bosses and a few people interested in cycling would not take kindly to this newspaper ignoring the race.

Now, a week and half into the race, I wish I had made a stand and boycotted this event. Last week three riders, Spaniards Manuel Beltrain and Moises Duenas and Italian climber Riccardo Ricco, winner of two mountain stages, failed tests for the banned blood-booster EPO.

Ricco actually was dumb enough (a word some of his fellow riders used which was mild compared with some of the names they called him) to try to run away when he was about to be tested and was caught by two stewards.

Now I read that the French anti-doping chief has not ruled out further positive tests during this season's race, though he promises that cycling will be a cleaner sport after the event finishes in Paris. Yeah right, pull the other one.

What has brought this drugs shame home is that one of the riders was contracted to Barloworld, the South African company which now, quite rightly, has pulled their sponsorship from the race.

Good for them. If others did the same, perhaps we would not have a Tour de France for a year or two and then cyclists and team managers might come to their senses.

This is downright cheating and it happens every year. You can gather that I am very anti- Tour de France, but as regular readers will note, we give much space to the event with pictures in every editions, so we cannot be accused of being biased.

What I would like to know is how many people out there actually follow the race day by day on SuperSport. Besides the often breathtaking scenery, I hardly give it a glance, especially if it is competing with the Proteas triumphant tour of England and the exciting British Open which was on for four full days last week.

Well, my email address is here and I would be interested to hear from readers what they really think about this drug-infested race and whether newspapers should downgrade it. Even the great Lance Armstrong retired amid stories that he took drugs, though it was never proven.

And while on the subject of drugs and while drug cheat American Marion Jones asks President George Bush to pardon her, who knows what we are in for when the Olympic Games start next month.

Jones was considered squeaky clean in her glittering career and was held up as a role model among her rivals. She would have been the last one you would have guessed would have taken a banned substance, but it all caught up with her and all that glory and those gold medals have had to returned.

What a waste and how sickening to realise we were all fooled by what we thought was a real, God-given talent.

There is so much to celebrate in sport, but when I hear the name Tour de France, I want to close my eyes and make it go away.