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.

Sports Blotter Roundup

The wheels are officially coming off the cycles at the Tour de France, as not only have two teams been disqualified for members doping, but the tour leader was pulled by his team because he failed to provide an itinerary for the past several weeks. Oh, and a bomb went off along the Spanish portion of the ride earlier today. The terrorist group, ETA, claimed responsibility. As for the racing, Michael Rassmussen was tossed, even though he was leading the race. He violated his team rules.

The Tour is in complete disarray as leaders have been sacked, high profile cyclists have been tossed, and last year's winner, Floyd Landis, is still under a cloud of suspicion over his performance and a failed test.

Earlier this week, Cofidis pulled its team out of the Tour when rider Cristian Moreni of Italy failed a doping test and was led away by police at the end of the 16th stage. That comes on the heels of another team pulling out because Alexandre Vinokourov tested positive for a banned blood transfusion. He had won a stage earlier in the race.

It's a sad thing that the sport of cycling is best known for doping scandals, and not the difficulty of winning the most prestigious race, the Tour de France.

Then, there's the ongoing mess with Michael Vick. He's been told to stay away from training camp by the NFL. Some are wondering why the half measures. Well, good question. There's also a good answer. While everything appears stacked against him, he is still presumed innocent under the law. Animal lovers have every right to be pissed off at Vick, but don't get ahead of the legal process. These things also have a way of working out for themselves. It might not be as fast as one would like, but they will work out.

There are also signs that Vick might never take another snap with the Atlanta Falcons, the team that drafted him out of college.

Expect Vick to take a look at what's happened and I expect him to try and cut a deal to get out. Prosecutors will likely try to take this to court, and the evidence certainly seems quite complete.

Oh, and for those still paying attention, there's Barry Bonds and his quest to crack baseball's holy grail, the career baseball home run record. He's sitting at 753, and Hank Aaron stands at 755. The problem for Bonds is that everyone associates him with the steroid scandal, regardless of whether he actually took them or not. His name is indelibly linked with the BALCO mess, and his name keeps popping up, despite his protestations to the contrary. It's surely keeping MLB Commissioner Bud Selig up at night, and perhaps wishing that Bonds comes down with an injury that prevents him from reaching the milestone, but Selig has said he'd be there. Hank Aaron has said he wouldn't attend, which is a shame, since putting the spotlight on Bonds actually makes Aaron's accomplishments all the more impressive - he did them without any claims of performance enhancement.