Tour de France riders protested angrily on the eve of this year’s race on Friday against the burden of suspicion they have been forced to carry because of a previous generation’s doping, reports The Globe and Mail.
“It is degrading to be dragged through the mud and be run down by some who look to make money on our backs,” the riders said in a statement on Friday after Le Monde newspaper printed a headline quoting Lance Armstrong saying it was impossible to win the Tour de France without doping.
American Armstrong, who was stripped of his seven Tour titles for doping and later admitted taking performance-enhancing drugs, had been speaking about the 1999-2005 era during which he crushed the opposition.
Earlier in the week, sports daily L’Equipe said a urine sample from Frenchman Laurent Jalabert in 1998 showed traces of the banned blood-booster EPO when it was re-tested in 2004.
“Enough is enough!!!!!!,’” the riders’ statement further read.
“Today the limits of the bearable have been reached!!!! We have for many years shown our will to work for a flawless fight against doping.
“If there was a culture of doping in the 1990s, in the past 15 years our sport has been fighting alone against the plague of doping.
“We are professional bike riders and we are proud of that. But do not treat us like sub-citizens as you have been doing for too long,” the riders’ statement continued.
Read more of this Reuters report published by The Globe and Mail.