Director of the Tour de France Christian Prudhomme (Image credit: AFP)
While in London, Christian Prudhomme commented on doping problems within competitive sports, but was optimistic about their eventual resolution within cycling. He called for help from cycling's fans and media, asking both to look forward to a drug-free cycling future.
"People take drugs for the glory and the money – but doping and drugs are our enemy, they are the enemy of cycling," said Prudhomme to Reuters. The Tour de France leader reminded fans that doping is a problem in other sports, too. "Ben Johnson took drugs to run 100 metres, so it's not the race or design of the course. If you staged a sack race, I'm sure some people would take drugs to be the best in a sack race."
Prudhomme commended the many parties who are fighting doping and acknowledged that change will take time. His own race has suffered due to doping with then yellow-jersey wearer Michael Rasmussen ejected from the 2007 Tour and Floyd Landis denied the 2006 Tour de France overall win due to positive tests. The 2007 Tour de France saw positive tests for Alexander Vinokourov, Iban Mayo and Christian Moreni, and Patrik Sinkewitz also withdrew during the race after a positive test result was returned from a test conducted at a training camp prior to the race.
"There has been a complete change of attitude amongst people who love cycling, and I am convinced that we will beat this," said an optimistic Prudhomme.
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