So the wheels have finally come off the Tour de France! What a surprise.

Apparently it’s a new low in the history of the grand tour billed as the ultimate test of sporting endurance.

Riders, sponsors, TV commentators and even TV viewers around the world are crying themselves to sleep because this grand old lady of cycling has again been sullied by the drugs cheats.

It is a far cry for the good old days of the race’s 104-year history when riders were as pure as the Alpine snow. Or were they?

A quick glimpse in the history books reveals a catalogue of dubious goings on.

For example there were the riders who hired thugs to stand at the roadside and punch other riders out of the saddle.

And then there were the tin tack boys who threw tacks down on the road to puncture the hopes of some competitors.

Worse still were the apparent spectators who handed riders water bottles laced with poison.

The truth is the tour has never enjoyed an ethical golden era. Fair play have never been its watchwords.
And doping allegations have plagued the tour almost since its beginning in 1903. Early tour riders were said to have consumed alcohol and used ether among other substances, as a means of dulling the pain of competing in endurance cycling. As time went by, riders began using substances as a means of increasing performance rather than dulling the senses, and organizing bodies such as the Tour and the International Cycling Union (UCI) as well as government bodies, enacted policies to combat the practice.

Of course, the tour’s corrupt history cannot justify ejected 2007 race leader Michael Rasmussen lying to his Rabobank team about his whereabouts in the months before the tour. As a result of this he was unavailable for four pre tour drug tests and with the clouds of suspicion looming his team sacked him.

“Tour in meltdown” screamed the headlines when race favourite Alexandre Vinokourov tested positive for blood doping and Cristian Moreni was found to have taken testosterone.

But the tour has survived worse. And the truth is that in the early days of the tour French audiences had such sympathy with the suffering of the riders that the use of illegal substances to dull the pain was almost subconciously accepted.
This of course is no longer the case but because of its history, doping, cheating and scandal are almost hardwired into this great event.
So to go overboard about the latest scandal and call for thte tour to be halted before it reaches Paris seems an over reaction.

And surely this is the rebirth of the tour – not it’s death knell – because the cheats are being caught regularly.

Which means the clean riders ride on. Surely that is what is wanted.

The Tour de France started off as a crazy idea, and got steadily more outlandish during its first 12 years.

The 1903 event saw 60 riders travelling 2,500 kilometres during 19 days on the basic cycle machinery of the day. There were only six stages and no convenient breaks for sleep. Competitors were expected to ride through the night. The first winner was well-known French rider Maurice Garin, nicknamed the "Chimney Sweep". The idea of the Tour was to sell copies of L'Auto newspaper, a publicity stunt that was such a success it destroyed the paper's rival Le Velo in the process. Yet the 1904 Tour nearly put paid to the whole idea, such was the skullduggery, poor behaviour and outright cheating that went on. Fans left nails in the road in front of their favourites' rivals while competitors themselves riders took car trips and even train rides. But the tour continued largely for the same reason the current tour has survived – too much money is at stake from the sponsors simply to pull the plug.The 1967 Tour will always be remembered as the one in which Tom Simpson died on Mont Ventoux. The best British rider of his day was a victim of the heat, his own limitless determination and also, sadly,  doping.

It is widely accepted the drugs were a way of life, to ease the pain if not to improve performance.

Doping controversy has surrounded seven-time Tour champion Lance Armstrong for some time, although there has never been evidence sufficient for him to be penalised by any sports authority. In late August 2005, one month after Armstrong's seventh consecutive victory, the French sports newspaper l'Équipe claimed to have uncovered evidence that Armstrong had used EPO in the 1999 tour  Armstrong denied using EPO and the UCI did not penalise him. In response to the L'Equipe allegations, an investigation was begun by the UCI in October 2005. The investigation reported that Armstrong did not engage in doping and that the actions of the World Anti-Doping Agency were "completely inconsistent" with testing rules.  At the same 1999 Tour, Armstrong's urine showed traces of a glucocorticosteroid hormone, although the amount detected was well below the “positive” threshold. Armstrong explained that he had used the skin cream Cemalyt containing triamcinolone to treat saddle sores. Armstrong had previously received permission from the UCI to use this skin cream for his saddle sores.

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