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Tour de France - Rest Day News

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Doping stories dominate the news coverage during the second rest day of the Tour de France:

  • The T-Mobile racing team has taken strong steps this year to be on the forefront of the anti-doping movement, but recent events have made their sponsors question whether they want to continue their support of the team. First, there was Jan Ullrich's entanglement with the OperaciÃn Puerto doping investigation. Then, former Deutsche Telekom (precursor to T-Mobile) racer, and current CSC team manager Bjarne Riis admitted to doping during the 1996 Tour. Finally, team rider Patrick Sinkewitz was found to have abnormal levels of testerterone in a test taken on June 8th. Co-sponsor Adidas could withdraw support as well. See the full story here at VeloNews.
  • Michael Rasmussen will meet with the press today to address concerns about his missing four mandatory drug tests over the past two years. Some are calling for him to withdraw from the Tour, but he is saying that it was administrative error. Meanwhile, a former friend from his mountain bike racing days alleges that Rasmussen tried to get him to transfer a blood substitute product to Europe several years ago.
Some new toys:
  • The Euskatel-Euskadi team is riding a new Orbea Orca
  • Michelin has released the Pro3 Race clincher
  • SRAM's new Red component group continues to make limited appearances
  • Shimano has rolled out a new Dura-Ace rear hub
  • See them, and more, here at CyclingNews.com

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