Sarkozy PARIS, FRANCE (Reuters):
French media mourned the Tour de France yesterday after the expulsion of race leader Michael Rasmussen but President Nicolas Sarkozy said organisers were finally tackling the scourge of doping.
"The death of the Tour," Liberation daily said in a front page headline, adding: "Stop this circus!"
"This cycling procession has transformed itself into a caravan of ridicule," the paper said in an editorial.
"If the organisers really intend to save cycling, they should stop the competition. And decree a pause of several years - the time to heal these ex-sportsmen who have become drug addicts."
Sarkozy, on a visit to Senegal, said he backed director Christian Prudhomme and Patrice Clerc, president of organisers ASO in the drive to clean up the Tour.
"I support the organisers of the Tour de France because they have the courage to get rid of the cheats," he told reporters.
"Let's stop the hypocrisy, it's been going on for decades and at last there are determined people, Mr Prudhomme and Mr Patrice Clerc. Well I support them," he said.
"Basically, I want to defend the Tour and get rid of the cheats," he said.
Elsewhere, reaction was more bitter. France Soir daily transformed its front page into a fictitious death notice for theTour, saying its 'father' Henri Desgrange, the Tour's founder, and its 'grandchildren', several former winners of the competition, were in mourning.
"The death of the Tour de France, on July 25, 2007, in Orthez, at the age of 104 years, following a long illness. The funeral will be celebrated in the strictest privacy."
The Tour began yesterday's stage without Rasmussen after the Dane was sacked by his team Rabobank, who said he had lied about his training location in June.
Rasmussen's sacking was the latest blow to the Tour, coming after the announcement of positive dope tests on pre-race favourite Alexander Vinokourov and Italy's Cristian Moreni.
"There are people who are cheating. They must be punished in the severest possible way," Prime Minister Francois Fillon told RTL radio, adding the fight against doping was one of his government's priorities.
"There are controls. Some people are caught red handed, who are punished. Of course, this gives a disastrous image to the Tour de France and to sports."
