The tour de France 2007 was in crisis after unearthing a string of cheating scandals shaking up the Tour de France since the Festina team doping scandal of the 1998’s Tour, just under a decade ago.
Lies
For the first time in the Tour’s history a leading yellow jersey cyclist had been expelled from the Tour. Michael Rasmussen lied to his Dutch team Rabobank about his whereabouts leading up to the Tour and missing one of the four doping test leading up to the race.
Rasmussen had been leading the Tour and was piped to win the 2007’s Tour de France but was removed, not for doping suspicion, but because he lied and therefore didn’t act according to the rules of the Race, leaving Stage 17 of the Tour without a yellow jersey rider. It was claimed that he was in Italy in June when he said he had been in Mexico and consequently missing a drugs test leading up to the Race.
Blood Doping
Another shock to hit over the two days over the 24th and 25th of July 2007, was with the pre-race favourite, Alexandre Vinokourov who was removed from the race after testing positive for blood doping. Vinokourov was found to have two different types of red blood cells in his blood - blood doping, by injecting someone else's blood is thought to increase your VO2 Max, or your oxygen efficiency - this lessens fatigue. With Vinokourov's expulsion the rest of his team Astana pulled out from the race.
...And Drug Taking
And to top it all the Italian Champion of 2004 Cristian Moreni of team Cofidis also failed a drugs test. Moreni tested positive for high levels of testosterone and forced his team’s withdrawal from the Tour de France.
Which was terrible news for Teammate Bradley Wiggins, Britain’s reigning Olympic pursuit champion, and who at the start of the Tour de France; the successful le Grand Depart hosted in London, wowed his home crowd by winning 4th place in the Prologue on the 1st day of the Tour. Wiggins was in 138th place - two hours 42 minutes and 20 seconds off the lead, when he was forced withdraw from the competition due to Moreni’s positive drugs test.
All this was in the event of two days and the French newspaper France Soir wrote in response to the scandals:
Death notice: the Tour de France died on 25 July 2007, at the age of 104, after a long illness...
It's all the more painful as we had almost begun to believe in the Tour again... But instead of dreams, the last 48 hours have been a living nightmare.
Where next for what should be one of the greatest endurance races in the world?...
More Tour de France
Tour de France 2007 - le Grand Depart
The tour de France 2007 - the 94th year of the Tour started off in London, England! 2007's Tour de France is One of London's largest sporting events it played host to ahead of the Olympic Games in 2012. Find out more about when the Tour de France visited England!
Tour de France History - The Early Beginnings
The very first Tour de France back was back in 1903 - This first race became the creation of the greatest cycling race in the world we know today. Read on to find out about the tour de France's early beginnings...
