They fell like flies.

This year they fell like flies. One after the other. It reminded of me of the windowsills in my basement. Dark cold windowsills filled with dust and dead flies. The flies in my windowsill had the same look on their faces as the cyclists who cheated in this year’s Tour de France. Cold frozen guilty faces. Now, I’ll never be sure of why the flies always looked so guilty… maybe it was because they knew they had the last word as they landed on my dinner and flew downstairs to die…or maybe flies always look guilty like that. I found these frozen flies in the same condition that I found the professional cyclists. The only difference is that I looked up to the professional cyclists, and I don’t really look up to houseflies.

The 2007 Tour started on a hot July 7th. Everything was going smoothly. It seems that all the professional cyclists had recovered from the dethroning of last year’s winner Floyd Landis whose fate was still undecided. With the 2006 tour behind them, Tour de France 2007 had begun.

The first to fall was Patrik Sinkewitz of the famous T-Mobile team who, after stage 8, tested positive for high testosterone levels. This happened after he crashed and withdrew from the race. It was at this time that Sinkewitz’s test results surfaced. The rest of T-Mobile withdrew from the tour whereupon Sinkewitz was sacked.

Next to fall was my sister’s favorite: Alexandre Vinokourov, a courageous young rider, and one of the tour favorites. Stage 15 of the tour marked the end for Astana’s Vinokourov. He was believed to have the capability to take the yellow jersey. This was until a drug test revealed Vinokourov was using blood transfusions to gain an unfair advantage. Like T-Mobile, Astana sacked Vinokourov and withdrew from the tour.

Christian Moreni, a French rider for the Cofidis team withdrew from the tour after stage 16 where he participated in an anti-doping protest. After testing positive, he admitted to doping. Both he and his team withdrew from the tour.

Iban Mayo was the most surprising dropout, as I have respected him for a rider for a very long time. This Spanish rider tested positive for EPO after he had placed 16th overall in the race. His results were obviously withdrawn by the Tour de France and his team, Saunier Duval-Prodir, suspended him immediately.

The last rider to drop was not a surprise to me. Watching him ride this race was amazing. He had some miraculous rides, tromping the competition in an un-human way. This was most prevalent on Stage 16 when, despite many attacks by Discovery’s Alberto Contador, he rocketed to the end of the ride in first place. His team, Rabobank, fired him for lying to the manager about why he missed certain pre-tour drug tests. Evidentially Rasmussen had been given two warning from the International Cycling Union (UCI) and two warnings from Anti Doping Denmark for missing doping control tests.

This jumble of tour drama is what sparked my personal interest in starting this blog. After Tour de France 2007, many claimed that professional cycling was tainted and ruined forever. I strongly disagree. Despite the events of July 2007, cycling remains pure. This blog will tell you why. It will also help you further understand what doping is, the history of professional cyclists cheating and the future of the sport in light of recent scandals. I would encourage your deep discussion about this topic. Together, we will ask the questions that others may be afraid, or hesitant, to pose