TdF Stage 16: Who's clean?

By Yokota Fritz


Tour de France 2007 Stage 16 Today's stage started 20 minutes late as the French and German teams protested the doping scandals with a brief sit-in. Stage 16 at 130 miles and five categorized climbs -- including two hors catégorie -- is probably the toughest stage of the 2007 Tour de France.

If Europeans historically have had a laissez-faire attitude toward doping, this was not in evidence today as many spectators booed the GC leaders as they rode by. With all of the scandal, I have to wonder if anybody in the top five today are drug free? Rasmussen rode strong and confidently through the entire stage, seemingly unaffected by the controversy swirling around him. His Stage 15 rival, Alberto Contador, held back as Contador's teammate Levi Leipheimer took second place.

Todays results:

1 Michael Rasmussen (Den) Rabobank 6.23.21 (34.20 km/h)
2 Levi Leipheimer (USA) Discovery Channel 0.25
3 Alberto Contador (Spa) Discovery Channel 0.35
4 Cadel Evans (Aus) Predictor-Lotto 0.43
5 Mauricio Soler (Col) Barloworld 1.25

GC as of today -- let's see how much this holds up after today's doping control tests:

1 Michael Rasmussen (Den) Rabobank
2 Alberto Contador (Spa) Discovery Channel 3.10
3 Cadel Evans (Aus) Predictor-Lotto 5.03
4 Levi Leipheimer (USA) Discovery Channel 5.59
5 Carlos Sastre (Spa) Team CSC 9.12
6 Haimar Zubeldia (Spa) Euskaltel-Euskadi 9.39
7 Alejandro Valverde (Spa) Caisse d'Epargne 13.28
8 Kim Kirchen (Lux) T-Mobile 14.46
9 Yaroslav Popovych (Ukr) Discovery Channel 16.00
10 Mauricio Soler (Col) Barloworld 16.41

TdF Stage 16:

• Velonews.
  
• Cyclingnews results & photo gallery.
  
• TdF Blog Stage 16 report.
  
• Spare Cycles Stage 16.
  
• Cutler: "The only ways Rasmussen can lose this race now are for him to either live up to his nickname of Crashmussen or for him to get a positive doping test."

Other Tour de France news:

• Wiggins suspected doping (Via Honk de Bonk):

  "I know how well I went in the time trial, what power output I had," said Wiggins. "I know that in order to put two minutes into me, what power Vino would have had to have put out and the effort he would have had to make and it didn't add up. I didn't want to accuse people because they had beaten me outright. But when you saw him limping the week before you couldn't help thinking about it." He added "I think everyone has been suspicious of Astana"

• Cristian Moreni positive for testosterone. Also: Basque seperatist terrorist along the Tour route and Vinokorouv pleads his case.
  
• VeloNews on blood doping: What, How, and Why.
  
• T-Mobile to review Tour sponsorship.

Labels: tour de france