Crisis of faith

Oh, for God's sake!

As if Patrik Sinkewitz's early exit from the Tour de France after the news that he had tested positive for elevated levels of testosterone before the race wasn't bad enough.

And then we've had to sift through the allegations and rumours about race leader Michael Rasmussen, which may turn out to be nothing but are nonetheless causing untold damage to the reputation of both rider and sport.

So, anyway, what did I say yesterday about hoping there were no dark whispers about Alexandre Vinokourov?

What happened today?

News emerged this afternoon that Vino tested positive for blood doping after winning Saturday's individual time trial, which casts both that victory and yesterday's combative breakaway win in, shall we say, a far less heroic light. His team, Astana, has immediately withdrawn from the race which, I think, says everything about his guilt.

Yesterday I praised Vinokourov's determination, bravery and never-give-up attitude, and referred to him as " a big winner" for the way he had bounced back from his crash-related injuries to claim two stage wins. Today he is nothing but a big loser.

And I am nothing but a disillusioned optimist - or maybe that should be fool?

It's hard to know what to believe any more. Or indeed if there is really anything left to believe in. Blow after blow has rained down on the sport of cycling. The amphetamine-related death of Britain's Tom Simpson on Mont Ventoux in 1967. The 'Festina affair' of 1998. The allegations which constantly dogged Lance Armstrong's dominance. Last year's Operation Puerto which saw race favourites Jan Ullrich and Ivan Basso (and several others) excluded on the eve of the Tour. Floyd Landis's positive epi-testosterone test. 1996 winner Bjarne Riis recently admitting that he had doped. The catalogue of mysterious heart-related deaths (a possible side effect of EPO use) which have claimed the lives of at least 20 professional cyclists in recent years.

The list goes on and on.

And every name which is added to that list makes it just that bit more difficult to trust the evidence of my own eyes when watching a sport I dearly love. Cycling is perhaps THE most physically demanding sport there is: it requires immense levels of fitness, asks its participants complete tens of thousands of kilometres of racing ever year in all manner of terrains and conditions, and is an occupation in which broken collarbones are frequent and death is by no means unknown. It is a sport contested by supermen - or, at least, that is what one hopes for.

I have never for one minute thought that the spectre of doping had ever left cycling completely - I'm an optimist, but I'm not THAT stupid. However, I had hoped that we were starting to see the pendulum swing back in favour of the authorities and the majority who choose to compete 'clean'. The events of the past 12 months or so have categorically demonstrated this is not the case.

Like I said, I don't know what to believe in any more. It's enough to test anyone's faith.

Next you'll be telling me the tooth fairy doesn't exist ...