Tour de France: French Still Sour

Lance wins his seventh and of course the French press still have to put out suspicions of drug use on his and his teams part. No facts mind you. Just suspicions.

The final Tour de France victory of Lance Armstrong has left a legacy which may takes years to beat, but France's AFP wire reports, Armstrong's domination of the race since 1999, 18 months after he had recovered from cancer, has always aroused suspicion.

If Armstrong was found to be doing illegal enhancement drugs, fine, hang him out as a loser, but spouting suspicions without proof shows just how much of a sore-loser these people are.

Of course natural talent and well paid team mates must be irrelevant to the win.

Jalabert, who raced for the Spanish ONCE team and ended his career with CSC manager Bjarne Riis, claimed that some teams hold the magic formula to avoid being caught by the doping inspectors.

"Someone asked me, 'why is Armstrong and his team superior to all the others?'. I said, 'because they've got the recipe that works'.

"I don't want to go into all the medical details. All I'm saying is that people who watch cycling are not stupid."

Boyer feels that Armstrong, despite his seven Tour victories, has left some unconvinced.

"The doubt remains as to whether there's something hiding behind his success. A lot of people who work on the Tour feel something's not quite right.

"History shows us that we'll end up finding out in the end. My passion is cycling and I hope we find out that everything that Armstrong has achieved is the fruit of his hard work and his quality. Not the contrary.

Note that last sentence well. We'll find out. And if there isn't any evidence, someone will make up that evidence. I'll put money on that happening in the near future. Oh, and just in case you don't know, Jalabert is French.