Sponsors want Boonen in Tour

Quick Step manager Patrick Lefevere seems to think that Tom Boonen still might ride the Tour de France. "I don't have any illusions about it, but our sponsors insist that we try," he said on Belgian radio, according to Sporza. "The sponsors want to see Tom in the Tour de France." The organisers of the Tour announced this week that Boonen would not be allowed to start in the race after the former World Champion tested positive for cocaine.

The Quick Step manager said that he understood that the Tour had a "zero-tolerance" policy, but asked, "Why can Stefan Schumacher participate?" The Gerolsteiner rider was arrested last year after the World Championships for drunk driving and leaving the scene of an accident and it was later disclosed that he had tested positive in a police doping control for amphetamines. Like in Boonen's case, the substance involved is not illegal out of competition under sporting regulations. Despite the arrest and test, "he can freely ride in the Tour. And the Spanish riders who are involved in the Puerto case are protected by Spanish law.

"It is a heavy price to pay for Boonen," Lefevere continued. "For the sponsors this is, of course, terrible, just like for the team. Tom takes a lot of pressure off the team during the Tour. Stijn Devolder can more easily concentrate on the GC if Tom takes the first 10 days in the wind. Tom is very important to us."

A meeting between the Quick Step boss and Tour de France director Christian Prudhomme is possibly in the making. But the Tour director has already made his point clear: "Tom is a great champion, he has the duty to be an example. But he has not been irreproachable, and he admitted this himself - in a rather touching way. With the Tour being only three weeks away, I feel that the integrity of the Tour, but also of the other participating teams, is being harmed. This is not a definite condemnation of a champion, but it's also the duty of the Tour to protect the peloton," Prudhomme told L'Equipe on Friday.