Red Flagging the Yellow Jersey

The 2008 iteration of the Tour de France is in serious trouble, as yet again doping threatens to destroy the race.

Numerous riders have already been tossed from the race, and now one of the race leaders has been banned because of testing positive for EPO and his team withdrew. Nice.

Riccardo Ricco, the winner of two stages in the Tour’s first nine days and in ninth place in the race so far, tested positive for a new-generation variant of the blood-boosting drug EPO after the fourth stage of the race last week, according to the French Anti-Doping Agency.

After the results became known Thursday morning, French Gendarmes questioned Ricco in the start village at Lavelanet and then drove away with him in a team car.

Members of Ricco’s Saunier Duval-Scott team had already prepared to start the 12th stage of the race in Lavalanet on Thursday morning when news of the failed drug test led the team’s management to withdraw its remaining riders from the Tour.

Ricco’s is the third failed test by a rider at the Tour this year. Two Spanish riders previously tested positive for EPO: Manuel Beltran of the Liquigas team and Moises Duenas Nevado of the Barloworld team. Duenas Nevado was also arrested after a police search found banned performance-enhancing drugs in his hotel room.

The Tour management was expected to address doping issues at a news conference after the finish of Thursday’s stage here. In informal discussions about doping issues earlier this week, Tour officials have maintained that catching riders who are doping indicates that their testing regimen is working and that they are succeeding in trying to keep the sport clean.

Apparently, there's nothing that will be a sufficient deterrent to riders using performance enhancing drugs.

It's sad, since this race is one of the true spectacles in sport as it winds its way through France, culminating in the final leg in Paris, including a stint down the Champs Elysee throughout the month of July.