Tour Prepares to Kick Off Amidst Doping Scandal

The 2006 Tour de France kicks off tomorrow morning at 8:30AM EST. Those of us not lucky enough to be in France to watch the cyclist begin their month-long trek in Strasbourg can catch ongoing coverage on OLN, or head over to the Bicycle Sport Shop on South Lamar, where they'll be showing daily broadcasts and hosting special weekend viewing parties. Various other venues around town will be offering coverage, as well; Austinist will bring you a more detailed list next week.

Already, several teams are fractured as doping allegations run rampant: T-Mobile suspended German powerhouse Jan Ullrich and his teammate Oscar Sevilla, and CSC expelled Giro d'Italia champion Ivan Basso, after the Spanish doping probe dubbed Operación Puerto implicated nearly 60 riders yesterday of alleged performance enhancing blood doping. Pat McQuaid, president of Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI), the global union responsible for handling matters such as these, had "suggested" to TdF teams beforehand that anyone possibly accused would be asked to withdraw.

CSC team manager Bjarne Riis personally made the call to remove Basso from the race:

"It's my responsibility to make this decision and suspend Ivan from the race," Riis said. "I have to think about the team, that is now the most important thing. I trust Ivan Basso, but now it is up to him and his lawyers to show he has nothing to do with this affair."

Astaná-Würth's entire team was already asked to withdraw their participation by tour organizers, and Tour director Christian Prudhomme called the situation "a bit more complicated" after the list was revealed on Thursday with nine names from Astaná-Würth, and suggested that they might have been encouraging a "team doping policy."

You can keep up with all of this controversy (and the race itself) by checking on the following sites:

[Tour de France 2006 Blog]
[VeloNews]
[Outdoor Life Network Coverage with Paul Sherwen and Bob Roll]

Finally, retired cycling champ and Austin bar owner Lance Armstrong isn't getting involved in all of the above scandals, but the seven-time Tour winner is busy with his own doping-related shenanigans: Armstrong launched a libel suit against the UK's Sunday Times after the newspaper published a review of a book entitled "LA Confidential, the Secrets of Lance Armstrong," which alleges that he had used performance-enhancing drugs several years ago.

"I always said that the article falsely alleged that I was guilty of doping,'' Armstrong said in a statement released by his lawyers. "The article was based on untrue allegations, which are without substance."

The London High Court issued a preliminary ruling yesterday in favor of Armstrong.

*Photo by hugo on flickr

Contact the author of this article or email tips@austinist.com with further questions, comments or tips.