Vampires on bikes playing khazakhian roulette: Yet another case.

So yet another bomb exploded on the scene of the Tour de France today with Alexandre Vinokourov being tested positive for blood transfusion. Vinokourov won last week's "contre la montre" and yesterday's stage through the Pyrenees. His team Astana had two cases of doping this year with Italian Eddie Mazzoleni and German Matthias Kessler. With the discussion circling around the current leader Michael Rasmussen and 2nd place Alberto Contador this race is a good as dead.

I started watching the Tour de France in the 80s, looking at riders like Hinault, Fignon or Lemond. Hell knows what those guys injected into their veins, but cracks in the wall became bigger in 1998 when the scndal around the Festina team surfaced and riders like Richard Virenque were suspended for using performance-enhancing drugs. Since then every now and then a case came up, but the biggest one came last year when Tour de France winner Floyd Landis was exposed. Gee, I would have loved to have seen a positive test for Lance Armstrong, I mean, just look at this year. The two leaders Rasmussen and Contador simply fly up a mountain way faster than Armstrong and he wasn't slow either.

This whole sport is rotten to the core and maybe the only way to purge it from doping will be to drive it back to a time where there is no professional cycling. Up to this point I see no rider who is "clean". The one thing that keeps me watching though is the pure curiosity on who will be next. I have to admit that's a thrill.