Click to play videoParis: The Tour de France has a new champion. Spain's Alberto Contador donned the yellow jersey on the winner's podium in Paris after the thrilling final stage through the heart of the French capital. But doping allegations and the removal of the three top riders cast a cloud on cycling's biggest event.
Like every race for more than a century, the Tour de France had a Yellow Jersey for its winner. But this year the Tour itself was the big loser. Rarely if ever has the race been so tarnished by doping scandals and the violation of rules meant to stop the use of performance enhancing drugs.
Hans Michael Holczer of Team Gerolsteiner says, "It is very, very hard. It is very hard for cycling, it is very hard for the Tour de France. But I think it is not a disaster."
Perhaps, but whole teams were pulled from this year's race. Sponsorship and TV rights deals are at risk and Tour officials vow that next year the Tour would be drug free.
For others who cling to the hope the Tour and cycling will clean up its act, the scandals this year seemed a painful, if necessary step towards eliminating the cheating.
Dr Gerard Guillaume of Team Francaise des Jeux, says: "For two years, big names are caught, it means the tests are much better, it is going to be harder for people to escape. The doping evolves faster than the tests?"
This year's winner, Spain's Alberto Contador, like last year's, has not escaped doping suspicions. In the final days of the race it was reported he was on a list found in the office of a doctor implicated in a doping scandal in Spain. Contador denied any involvement.
The International Cycling Union cleared him and he passed his medical tests during the Tour. The race, though, has miles to go before it gets a clean bill of health.
Long after the final lap down the Champs Elysee, the question will remain whether this year's scandals marked the beginning of a real cleanup of doping on the Tour, or the end of the race's integrity.
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