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| Winner: Discovery Channel rider Alberto Contador of Spain led the final stage through Paris on Sunday. Philippe Wojazer/Reuters |
Tainted Tour de France finishes under cloud
Rampant doping cast a pall over the Tour de France's 104th year.
from the July 30, 2007 edition
Page 3 of 4
The doping scandals have brought a political reaction as well. German Interior Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble is calling the Stuttgart championships, scheduled for Sept. 25-30, the last chance for cycling.
But Mr. Schaeuble is also threatening to pull government funding for the event – 150,000 euros – and perhaps ban it altogether if it can't be certifiably free of cheating.
"The sponsorship sum really isn't the problem," says Christian Sachs, Schaueble's spokesman. "We cannot put taxpayers' money in an event that obviously includes criminal networks and riders."
Austrian, German antidoping laws
Some are saying the sport needed to hit bottom before it could really clean itself up. In the last month, Austria and Germany passed strict antidoping laws that make using banned performance-enhancers a federal crime.
It will still be up to individual sports associations to enforce sanctions, but the new laws require athletes to cooperate with authorities in determining the source of the illegal substances used.
"It's necessary to have this law to find out who's standing behind the athletes, to find out the criminal networks," says Ulrike Spitz, who works at the German Anti-Doping Agency, or NADA.
The German government has pledged to nearly quadruple NADA's funding, to 4 million euros a year. The Interior Ministry is also pledging to increase the public funds used for German sports next year, from 105 million euros to 120 million euros – though the opposition Social Democrats object.
"We have to make sure to keep all the good qualities of sport for our society and that can only happen by putting more money into the system and enhancing the fight against doping," Mr. Sachs says.
German cycling sponsors are diverting money from their budgets to strengthen NADA. T-Mobile has already given NADA 200,000 euros to date and has pledged to give another 250,000 euros by the end of the year. Another company, Nordmilch, which sponsors Team Milram, just pledged 150,000 euros in funding.
Perhaps most important, the teams themselves are beginning to take responsibility for riders' behavior. On teams like T-Mobile and CSC, riders are tested internally all season long.
Many say the coming months will be critical. "The sport of cycling seems to be able to damage itself but unable to help itself," says Meutgens, the author. "Let's hope the next year will be different."
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