France Dismayed By Tour Doping Scandal

French media and politicians reacted with dismay on Wednesday to the doping scandal that has hit this year's Tour de France.

French media and politicians reacted with dismay on Wednesday to the doping scandal that has hit this year's Tour de France and again tarnished one of the country's favourite summer rituals.

"Cheats out!" headlined the daily Le Parisien on its front page over a picture of Alexander Vinokourov, the Kazakh rider whose Astana team pulled out of the Tour after he tested positive for blood-doping on Tuesday.

The daily Le Figaro said the Vinokourov affair had delivered a "hammer blow" to an event whose credibility was already suffering because of questions about testing hanging over Danish race leader Michael Rasmussen.

"The image of the Tour de France, a monument of international sport, has obviously been hurt and I'm extremely sad," Sports Minister Roselyne Bachelot told Le Monde.

But in a measure of the place held by the Tour in the national imagination, a government spokesman said President Nicolas Sarkozy, who followed part of a stage with Tour director Christian Prudhomme last week, would not give up on the race.

"The Tour de France, is one of the symbols of French identity and a July without the Tour de France isn't July," spokesman Laurent Wauquiez said after a cabinet meeting.

"What they need is very clear support on our part and the presence of the president of the Republic on the Tour stage was very important from that point of view," he said.

FRENCH INSTITUTION

Over its 104-year existence, the race has become an institution in France and great past riders such as Jacques Anquetil, Raymond Poulidor, Bernard Hinault or Eddy Merckx are still household names.

But more than a sporting event, the Tour is also a showcase for France itself and the colourful peloton is followed avidly on television as it winds its way through picturesque villages and towns before heading up the Champs-Elysees for the finish in Paris.

Le Parisien called on readers to send in suggestions on how to save "La Grande Boucle" ("The big buckle") and devoted its first five pages to the scandal.

There was also widespread acknowledgement that doping has long been an issue for the Tour but an accumulation of cases involving some of the sport's top names has brought the longstanding doubts to a head.

Last year's winner Floyd Landis was the first to fail a drugs test while other top riders, including Germany's Jan Ullrich and Italy's Ivan Basso were implicated in a major Spanish doping investigation.

In May, Bjarne Riis, the 1996 Tour champion, admitted to doping during his career.

Anquetil, who won the Tour five times in the 1950s and '60s, himself once poured scorn on the idea that it was possible to complete the thousands of kilometres "on mineral water".