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I haven't been a cycling fan long enough to remember 1998 firsthand. But I have to hope that the Tour is larger than any one (or dozens!) of riders.

Just as when we speak about the race itself, I can say that three weeks is a long time -- a lot can happen between now and July 20. It is a Grand Tour in every literal and figurative respect. It is transformative and transcendent: no one, not participant or spectator, emerges at the end the same as they arrived at the start.

The more I think about it, the more I wonder if the scandal was a necessary evil -- yes, the scandal robs us of anticipated matchups, but so do crashes and illness. Like any sport, it remains human.

And hopefully, this is a definitive shakeout of a rider-generation addicted to doping. Addiction, I believe, is the proper word for what's been happening across sports, and addiction is the word that belies cynical arguments that bio-pharma-medical augmentation is the inevitable corollary to athletic progress. Jan Ullrich does not turn back into a struggling club rider now that he's off his alleged meds, same as no amount of horse needles will turn me into a contender. Again -- a human endeavor.

Our diversity trumps anything cooked in a lab. To me, that's the appeal of watching the Tour and riding a bike. More than being able to ride the same roads and buy the same equipment, this is a sport where uniquely, you have a window into absolute human limits, both for its moments of intensity and essentially because of its sheer interval. Just as at mile 80 for us, at day 20 for them, no weakness can remain masked.

Even Jan, had he won, would have for many of us an imagined asterisk next to his name, because he never beat Armstrong. Now, whoever wins will have another imagined asterisk, only for another reason. But there is no real asterisk, just as there would be none if Jan fell off his bike or Ivan got the runs -- a human sport.

Jan Ullrich & Ivan Basso have been withdrawn from the tour.

BBC news and cyclingnews.com.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/30/sports/30cnd-doping.html?hp&ex=1151726...

Jan Ullrich, Ivan Basso and Francisco Mancebo were among 37 riders listed in Spanish media as being named in the country's official doping report. Newspaper El Mundo published the names on Friday after a gag order on the report was lifted on Thursday.

Notably absent is Astana-Wurth rider and Tour de France hopeful Alexandre Vinokourov, but nine of the Kazakh's team-mates were implicated.

Astana Wurth: Michele Scarponi (ITA), Marcos Antonio Serrano (ESP), David Etxebarria (ESP), Joseba Beloki (ESP), Angel Vicioso (ESP), Isidro Nozal (ESP), Unai Osa (ESP), Jaksche Joorg (GER), Giampaolo Caruso (ITA)

CSC: Ivan Basso (ITA)

Caisse D'Epargne-Iles Baleares: Constantino Zaballa (ESP)

Saunier Duval: Carlos Zarate (ESP)

AG2R: Francisco Mancebo (ESP)

T-Mobile: Jan Ullrich (GER), Oscar Sevilla (ESP)

Phonak: José Enrique Gutierrez (ESP), José Ignacio Gutierrez (ESP)

Communauté de Valence: Vicente Ballester (ESP), David Bernabeu (ESP), David Rodriguez (ESP), José Adrian Bonilla (ESP), Juan Gomis Lopez (ESP), Eladio Jimenez Sanchez (ESP), David Latasa (ESP), Ruben Plaza (ESP), José Luis Martinez (ESP), Manuel Llorent (ESP), Antonio Olmo (ESP), David Munoz (ESP), Javier Cherro (ESP), Javier Pascual (ESP, former rider and current technicien)

Unibet.com: Carlos Garcia Quesada (ESP)