At Tour de France, doping is always part of the story

German police officers patrol near Burgplatz square prior to the team presentation of the Tour de France cycling race in the center of Duesseldorf, Germany, Thursday, June 29, 2017. (AP Photo/Peter Dejong)
German police officers patrol near Burgplatz square prior to the team presentation of the Tour de France cycling race in the center of Duesseldorf, Germany, Thursday, June 29, 2017. (AP Photo/Peter Dejong)

At Tour de France, doping is always part of the story

DUESSELDORF, Germany (AP) - A scene from Godfather III about sums up where the Tour de France is with doping as the 2017 edition begins today.

In the movie, Al Pacino's character Michael Corleone laments his efforts to become a bona fide businessman are being undermined by his family's underworld connections. "Just when I thought I was out, they pull me back in," he wails.

Likewise, cycling's showcase race seemed largely to have extricated itself from the swamp of widespread blood doping that characterized Lance Armstrong's era. The 12 riders banned or provisionally suspended by cycling's governing body, the UCI, in 2015 and 2016 for using blood-boosting agents like Armstrong were largely second-tier. Just one, France's Lloyd Mondory, had previously raced in the Tour - in 2009 and 2010 when Armstrong was still competing.

But just four days before the 2017 edition gets rolling in Duesseldorf, Germany, came a reality check.

The UCI announced Andre Cardoso, a seasoned pro who was to have raced in support of 2007 and 2009 champion Alberto Contador in his quest for another Tour title, tested positive for EPO, a hormone banned because it stimulates the production of oxygen-carrying blood cells.

EPO was also part of Armstrong's doping armory when he cheated his way to seven Tour wins from 1999-2005. Those victories were subsequently all stripped from the Texan, who has been banned for life, leaving the sport and the Tour laboring under corrosive clouds of suspicion.

Time and cycling's sustained anti-doping efforts have helped to heal some of those wounds, and to win back fans in countries like Germany, where broadcasters had turned their back on the Tour. But Cardoso's positive test shows the race isn't out of the woods yet - and likely never will be.

"We keep saying that time is the healer of the sport and what people did 10 years ago to ruin the sport will be healed by time and the fact that nobody is doing it anymore," Team Sky rider Luke Rowe told the Associated Press.

But Cardoso's test, he added, "just puts a bad shadow on the sport again."

Describing himself as angry and frustrated, Rowe said he'd like the Portuguese veteran of seven Tours of Italy and Spain to be banned for life, "especially if you are caught with something as obvious as that."

"Guys like him should never be able to race a bike again," said Rowe, who is racing with reigning champion Chris Froome for a third time at this Tour.

Cardoso said in a statement he has never taken banned substances, having "seen firsthand through my career the awful effects that performance-enhancing drugs have had on our sport."

But if a follow-up test also comes back positive for the Trek-Segafredo team racer, the conclusion must be cycling still hasn't convinced all of its most experienced athletes cheating isn't worth the risk. And that's despite the thousands of yearly tests and the regular scrutiny of riders' blood for tell-tale signs of doping.

For Brian Cookson, president of the sport's ruling body, the UCI, Cardoso's positive result shows testing is working.

"I don't think it demonstrates that there are many, many other riders doping," he told the AP. "From time to time an athlete is foolish, and the chances are they are going to get caught."