Will doping be the death of the Tour de France?

"Professional cycling, with its archaic group pressure, is a special case in the world of sports," Klaus Hoeltzenbein concludes. "The extent to which this is not an isolated case will become clear at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing. The sport will suffer its next dramatic defeat there. In China lies will no doubt form the basis for all transactions. And there will be athletes like Alexander Vinokourov who are willing to risk everything for the sake of eternal glory and a fat bank account; Athletes who are so greedy that in addition to all the stuff that can't be detected by doping controls are also willing to take pills and injections that push them right into the arms of the investigators. To revive this sport the old system must be destroyed. Bank accounts must be monitored, state subsidies capped and TV funding cancelled. We must resort to measures like those used in the battle against arms and drug dealing."

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