The cycling sport was born in the XIX century. In the XX century, it gained extreme popularity. Now its popularity is not inferior to football and hockey. As a separate direction of this discipline originated in the 19th century, and the first competition took place in the suburbs of Paris. The cycling sport was introduced in the program of the Olympic Games. Today many people enjoy cycling as a hobby. There is the International Cycling Union, which is located in Switzerland. This sports organization was founded by the following countries: England, Belgium, Italy and France. The organization is engaged in the development and organization of championships in cycling sport.
The first competition in cycling appeared almost immediately after the invention of the bicycle. Long distance races began to gain popularity in the 90-s of XIX century. The race “Paris-Brest-Paris” was one of the first in this sport activity. This competition took place in 1891. The Tour de France appeared in 1903 and this race is popular even nowadays. Bicycle racing was always divided into individual and group categories. The first competitions were very different from today's cycling, as bikes were not as comfortable and practical than modern ones. Ride on them was uncomfortable, but it did not bother the athletes, since sporting interest and will to win have always been higher more important than ride comfort.
Tour de France is one of the most popular sport event in the world. The other cycling races are not popular outside Europe. Tour de France, on the other hand, is a name that is known to almost every family in the world. Tour de France has also the largest number of spectators at a sporting event in the world.
Tour de France consists of 21 stages. Each stage lasts one day. Each rider must finish the stage to the time it was recorded and accumulated. The total length of the race is between 3000 and 4000 kilometers, as the length of the route and stages are changed every year.
General classification happens according to ranking of riders’ accumulated time. The winner of the tour is the rider, with the total time (i.e., the sum of the times of all stages) which is the smallest among all the participants. It is possible to win the whole Tour without winning a single stage (Greg LeMond did it in 1990). The victory at the stage of the Tour is considered a great achievement of cyclist regardless of his position in the final general classification. In addition to the competition on time, there are other nominations: the best sprinter, the best mountain rider, and the best young rider.
Tour de France 2007 was the 94th round that was held from 7th till 29th of July 2007. The prologue of the race took place in London. This race included routes in Belgium and Spain. London launch was timed to the Day of memory of victims of terrorist attacks in London on 7 July 2005. It was the third time when the Tour included British stages. The route of the race was 3,569.9 km.
The previous year favorite Alberto Contador was involved in this Tour. Initially no one predicted his victory, and indeed his team "Discovery" did not name him as one of their main contenders for the top places in the "general classification". Perhaps it was part of a strategy game. For many, it was amazing to see that Contador was wearing the white jersey and defended it by a wide margin. Then he climbed to the second place in general classification, following the leader Michael Rasmussen. Contador won the 15th stage convincingly, but the "yellow jersey" was difficult to defend. However, Contador still did not have the chance to take first place. At the next, the last mountain stage Rasmussen felt much better and increased the gap. The second cutting showed that Rasmussen is also incredibly good for his weight and constitution.
However, it ended the controversial and unexpected. First Alexander Vinokurov was eliminated from the race. After a hard day on the 14th stage when he fell behind on half hour, he won the 15th stage, having exhausted all the riders on their way to him with endless attacks. However, after the stage organizers announced that he had taken a positive test for doping. His team Astana also left the Tour. Next day, the riders staged a picket, but not against the organizers, as it was during the doping scandals of 1998, demanding respect for the riders, but against their own comrades in the peloton, protesting against the violation of the purity of the sport. Some riders expressed in an interview that they all wish that Vinokurov did not ride next to them. However, not all support the rally, others, like David Millar, said they did not approve of such initiatives.
After winning the 16th stage of the owner of the yellow jersey Michael Rasmussen was withdrawn. Details were found out the day after. It turned out that his own team canceled him. He violated discipline, deceived the team, saying that he practiced in Mexico, but in fact, he trained in Italy. Many were delighted with such vigilance and journalistic integrity command. As a result, the 17th stage of the race passed without the yellow shirt, and then Contador, who was the second in general classification took the yellow jersey.
As it usually happens, the last 19th stage the tour was supposed to decide who the winner is. The top 3 of the stage looked like this: Contador, Evans, Leipheimer. The gaps were small, and people expected that the Evans and Leipheimer, who were more powerful than Contador, would move him from the first place. As a result, the stage has not changed anything, everybody kept their places, but with minimal disruption, that was the lowest in the entire history of the tour. The range of time in the top three was only 31 seconds. ("2007 Tour De France Doping Case Dismissed in France").
In 2007, all the news from Tour de France were about doping. Ivan Basso, which easily won the Giro d'Italia in 2006, hoped that all problems associated with the Operation Puerto were left behind. The case was postponed, referring to the fact that when he used doping, not everything that happened was contrary to the Spanish laws. CONI attempted to explore the Basso case. When they were unable to obtain sufficient evidences, in October 2006, they declared that Basso had the right to sign a contract and participate in the races. This solution has allowed Johan Bruyneel to obtain Basso with the team Discovery. The situation worsened because Discovery was the only ProTour team, which has contracted with several other riders implicated in the Puerto scandal (Allen "Tour De France Becomes Drug-fuelled Disgrace.").
Other ProTour teams were furious, because everybody agreed not to sign contracts with the riders passing by Puerto case until it is closed, and athletes are not really justified. Because of violation of the agreement, the teams united against the Discovery during the race, making it more difficult for them to act in peloton.
It assumed that Puerto case should be closed, but it did not happen. The big shift occurred in April, German prosecutors have compared DNA of Jan Ullrich with one of the DNA in the blood taken from Fuentes bags. At the end of April, it people knew that the Italian prosecutor's office has a blood bag from Fuentes, who allegedly belonged to Basso. Since then, the protection of Basso was destroyed. Knowing what to expect, Basso asked to break the contract with the Discovery ("Discovery Disbands without Backer.").
On 7 May, when he faced many evidences, Basso admitted that he was associated with Dr. Fuentes, but resolutely refused to acknowledge that he doped. Basso argued that he only planned to take a doping at the Tour de France 2006, and the rest of his victory is clean. Skeptics asked why he paid money to Fuentes since 2004. Doping Program, which really increases the efficiency and thus cannot be detected by testing, is very costly. The organizers of the Giro d'Italia that year said that about 50 riders involved in Puerto case would not be able to start Giro d'Italia. This meant that Michele Scarponi, Tyler Hamilton, and Jorg Jaksche were not at the start of the Italian stage race (Allen "Tour De France Becomes Drug-fuelled Disgrace.").
It is vital to note that the race coordinators needed to understand the doping and not only because of the observance of the moral aspects. Right after Puerto scandal, television audience of Vuelta a Espana fell by 30%. When a team sponsor withdrew from the sport, lots of money was lost for this sport. Sales of cycling books and DVD decreased. It was important to the economic well-being of professional racing to stop the fraud with doping.
In late April, cycling was struck by another bomb. Former Telekom team officer Jef D'Hont stated that EPO (erythropoietin), which was allowed by physicians to Telekom riders, was part of systematic doping program of the whole team. The typical dissents were given. However, a conspiracy of silence ended. Telekom riders of those years Rolf Aldag, Erik Zabel, Udo Bolts, Brian Holm, and several others made confessions. Athletes said that under the pressure they used a needle because of the risk of losing their employments.
A number of confessions made it clear that many teams have continued to work with the doping program since 1998. The fact that no one from the previous leaders was not involved in the stage race was the result of the scandalous proceedings. A symbolic gesture of the organizers of the Tour de France was the abolition of the number 1.
On June 19, 2007 the director of the Tour de France, Christian Prudhomme declared that the racers who have not signed until 7 July 2007 the anti-doping contract between the rider and the UCI could not participate. By the way, this agreement did not have any legal force, but one of the specified items included financial issue on which a cyclist, caught in doping, was obliged to pay a fine equivalent to the annual salary of the rider.
Works Cited
Allen, Peter. "Tour De France Becomes Drug-fuelled Disgrace." The Telegraph. Telegraph Media Group, 26 July 2007. Web. 10 Mar. 2016.
"2007 Tour De France Doping Case Dismissed in France" Cyclingnews.com. 05 May 2011. Web. 10 Mar. 2016.
"Discovery Disbands without Backer." BBC News. BBC, 10 Aug. 2007. Web. 10 Mar. 2016.
