TRIUMPH ON WORLD CUP STAGE FORGOTTEN AS FRANCE FAILS THE DOPE TEST

Triumph on World Cup stage forgotten as France fails the dope test
International competition is getting a rough ride among both the
cyclists and the grand masters.

AS CHARLES Dickens once said of another momentous period in French
history: "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times."

There was always going to be a hangover after the revolutionary zeal
of the country's World Cup victory celebrations on Bastille Day. And
this summer's sporting party has been well and truly spoiled by the
Tour de France, the world's greatest cycle race, which has been
blighted by riders' strikes and allegations of drug-taking.

The tour sank into further chaos yesterday when the 133 riders left in
the race stopped 20 miles into the 17th stage, between Albertville and
Aix-les-Bains, to protest against anti-doping raids by police on team
hotels. Most riders - except for the Once and Banesto teams, who have
pulled out and the Riso Scotti team - started again. But they raced
without their race numbers, thus making the stage invalid. And they
continued only after the tour's director, Jean-Marie Leblanc, gave
them guarantees that future police hearings would take place "with
dignity and discretion".

The overall race leader, Marco Pantani of Italy, was among the first
to tear his number off his jersey. He later said he was ready to give
up if the rest of the riders did too.

Mr Leblanc said he was hoping the tour could go on in spite of the
riders' threat to quit if police searches of their hotels continued.

But there were more raids. Officers investigating the French/ Swiss
Festina team, who were kicked out of the race on doping charges,
turned up at the Once team's hotel in Chambery during the race.

Once, led by a Frenchman Laurent Jalabert, had in turn pulled out in
protest at a police raid on the TVM team hotel on Tuesday. "I stop. I
made this decision knowingly. I was too depressed to start the race,"
said Jalabert.

The TVM riders, who were taken to hospital by police on Tuesday night
for dope tests, decided to compete despite getting little sleep during
the night. The team leader, Jeroen Blijlevens, complained that the
police treated them "like animals, like criminals".

The Tour de France has been rocked by the doping scandals since its
start in Ireland on 11 July. As disgrace has descended on the tour,
the cars marked with the logo of the sporting daily L'Equipe, the main
race sponsor, have been singled out for special treatment. The
L'Equipe cars are targets for stones and insults as they follow the
race.

L'Equipe has become a whipping boy, both because its editor JE9rF4me
Bureau, campaigned for two years against the management and selection
methods of the national football side - making himself spectacularly
unpopular after the triumph against Brazil on 12 July - and because it
was L'Equipe which blew the whistle on dope in the Tour de France 18
months ago.

However, dope and the Tour de France have been synonymous for 30 years
since the death of a British rider, Tom Simpson, in 1967. Simpson had
been taking amphetamines. Now the drugs are most likely to be
hormones, often hidden by masking products. The respected French daily
Le Monde yesterday quoted an anonymous cyclist as describing the usual
treatment as "two steroid pills every morning, one injection of
testosterone a week and [hormones] to top it off". The same rider
said: "When you take them, you are no longer the same man. You
actually feel your body change."

Graeme Obree, Scotland's double world champion cyclist, has claimed he
was stripped of the chance to ride in the Tour de France because he

refused to take drugs and to pay into a "slush fund" to buy drugs. "I
broke two of the toughest records in the book ; and won two world
titles but after saying no to drugs, I never received one more offer."

His words echoed admissions by cyclists to French investigators. The
competing cyclists have told French police of payments from their
winnings into illicit funds to pay for drugs on the sly.

In the meantime, the cyclists have become the targets of the French
sense of humour, with an impersonator on the Europe 1 radio station
giving cruel daily updates on the woes of a fictional fallen star.

But even the low that the tour has reached has not taken all the
tarnish from that special trinket the French nation so
enthusiastically embraced after beating Brazil 3-0.

After a five-week football tournament highly praised for its
organisation, France has indulged in an orgy of pride.

Since then, youngsters have taking to wearing blue soccer shirts, as
often as not emblazoned with the number 10 of the scorer of the first
two goals, Zinnedine Zidane, and French flags are still fluttering
from balconies in a country little given to nationalistic outbursts.

At the same time, the impact of the Tour de France is more limited.
Most of the participants are European, and, while, the World Cup win
raised spirits in France's suburbs, the tour is mainly a festival for
the less populated countryside.

In the French popular perception, one Paris businessman said, in the
end, it will be the French establishment - from media to the police -
"who are the bastards". He went on: "They are the ones who have ruined
a summer festival".

The tour is scheduled to finish in Paris on Sunday. And the whole
country will be glad.

Checked-by: "Rich O'Grady"