Tour de France finishes in civil war (The Times)

[Eugene]

Source: London Sunday Times

From The Sunday Times

July 29, 2007

Tour finishes in civil war
Race organisers attack ‘incompetent’ cycling officials over drugs

Alan Hunter

THE tainted Tour de France will finish in Paris today under even
darker storm clouds as cycling descended into civil war last night
with the event’s organisers saying the sport’s governing body is
not fit to sort out the doping crisis.

Patrice Clerc, the head of the Amaury Sports Organisation which
owns the 104-year-old race that acts as a showpiece for the
sport, said that Pat McQuaid, the Irish president of the Union
Cycliste Internationale (UCI), should resign and that the
governing body had “lacked clarity, transparency, professionalism,
competence, and in every case has shown a complete lack of
conscience”.

He called for an independent body to be set up to tackle the
scourge of drug abuse that saw two leading riders and two teams
kicked off the race last week.

“The piloting of cycling’s reconstruction cannot be given to the
UCI,” said Clerc. “We will have to do it with all those who reject
the current system in order to find our values again: riders, teams,
sponsors, federations . . . will all need to unite.”

-snip-

Read more: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/more_sport/tour_de_france/article2159236.ece

[shadowknows69]

1. Let's face it

It's just really cool to get stoned and go bike riding.