And We Thought Baseball Had Problems...

by WCK, 100% Injury Rate

I know none of you care about the Tour de France, but for all our bitching and moaning about performance enhancing drugs in baseball, it truly pales in comparison to cycling.

First it was Alexandre Vinokourov and his popular Kazakhstan team that got thrown off the Tour. Then, less than 24 hours later it was Cristian Moreni, an unheralded Italian team worker for Cofidis, who failed a doping test after the 11th stage last Thursday. He was ousted from the race. His team quit later Wednesday, not in protest, but in shame.

And now this. L'Equipe is reporting that the owner of the yellow jersey, Michael Rasmussen, has quit the tour and won't ride Thursday. Rasmussen has already been under a microscope because he missed a surprise drug test.

While I've never been much of a fan of cycling - if I ever was one at all - it seems incredibly scary that a sport could reach the point where if you're not cheating, you literally can't compete. It also sullies past accomplishments, for better or for worse. You couldn't convince me in a million years that Lance Armstrong didn't cheat at some point during his 7 consecutive Tour de France victories. In fact, what may be more impressive than Armstrong's 7 consecutive victories is that he was never caught.

MLB may have steroids, and the NFL may have Michael Vick/Pacman Jones/Chris Henry, but at least the core of these sports is still somewhat intact, despite the occasional rattle. Cycling seems to have blown up into a million pieces, and it looks as though it may never recover.