The first full stories crossed the Associated Press wire at 5:15 Friday morning in the Eastern time zone. By noon, cycling enthusiasts across the world, many with a head start on the eastern seaboard, were abuzz with the latest news from the Tour de France: Jan Ullrich and Ivan Basso were among several riders yanked from the Tour de France by their respective teams amid allegations of doping.
News also traveled quickly through the local cycling community.
“Word spreads fast on things like this, though,” said Ray Marchessault, 55, of Auburn. “We were already talking about it this afternoon, and it just happened.”
Doping has been the topic du jour in the United States in recent months thanks in large part to Barry Bonds and allegations of his involvement with Bay Area Laboratories (BALCO). In cycling, though, despite a flood of negativity toward seven-time Tour winner Lance Armstrong from European press recently, the charges of steroid use have gone largely unreported.
“I don’t think it’s going to hurt the sport tremendously,” said Justin Hartford of Greene. “I honestly think most people don’t care this year only because Lance isn’t in the race, and the attitude is if it’s not happening to us, why care.”
But plenty of people, apparently, do care. Enough, anyway, to follow the events of Friday’s startling withdrawals as they happened.
“Following cycling, I think we were all hoping guys like Ullrich and Basso were going to be contending for this year’s Tour,” said Marchessault. “Now we find this out, it’s unfortunate.”
“As a cycling fan, it’s disappointing,” said Eric Cobb, 45, of Auburn. “You can compare it to a World Series or a game between the Red Sox and Yankees where, all of a sudden, Curt Schilling and Derek Jeter were pulled from the game before it started, just because they were accused of something. I think the Tour is trying to save face.”
Local cycling fans agreed, though, that without Ullrich, who won the Tour in 1997, and Basso, who won the Giro d’Italia this year, the field has opened up wide, perhaps for another American winner.
“I think this opens the door quite a bit,” said Hartford. “But you never know how the race is going to unfold anyway. They both were great contenders, but by no means a lock to win.”
Floyd Landis, Levi Leipheimer and George Hincape are all considered top contenders for the podium.
“It’s going to be fun to watch,” said Cobb. “Based on who’s banned and who’s left, it leaves it wide open. Even if one of the Americans wins it, though, people will say they only won it because no one was there, which is unfortunate because a lot of people had some of the Americans as podium favorites anyway.”
The Tour starts with the prologue today in Strasbourg, France.
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