The Most Chaotic 48 Hours In Tour de France History

Anthony Walsh (0:00)

On the afternoon of the 25th of July 2007, Michael Rasmussen crossed the finish line, hands in the air, alone. He just won the hardest stage of that year's Tour de France, and he strengthened his grip on the race-lead yellow jersey.

But by the next morning, something bizarre had happened. He was gone. He was out of the race. He hadn't crashed. The UCI Commissars hadn't penalized him overnight. He hadn't tested positive. His own team had taken him out of the race.

To understand why, you have to go back just one day. Because Michael Rasmussen's disappearance was the final and most extraordinary moment in a sequence that had already seen one favorite leave the Tour de France, an entire team go home, and another positive test emerge while the race was still on the roads. I'm Anthony Walsh. I'm the founder of Not Done Yet Coaching Community, where we bring together strength and conditioning, training, recovery protocols, nutrition and community under one roof. You can take a look at that in the description below. I'm also a former lawyer, and now I'm the host of this The Roadman Cycling Podcast. What makes this Rasmussen story so compelling is that at every step, somebody different was making a decision. The laboratory produced the finding. The organizers asked the team to leave. Another team withdrew after one of its riders tested positive. Finally, the team with the yellow jersey decided its leader couldn't continue. The Tour de France was still moving towards Paris, as it does. But in the space of two days, it seemed to be losing control of its own story.

The 2007 Tour de France began with cycling in a difficult, difficult position. Lance Armstrong had retired after his 7th consecutive Tour victory in 2005 At the time, those wins still stood. But the sport was already dealing with years of doping allegations and investigations. The idea that a new winner would automatically give cycling a clean break had taken a serious hit. The previous year, Floyd Landis had produced one of the most remarkable rides in Tour history. He'd won the race and then he tested positive. He denied doping at the time and his case was still being contested when the 2007 Tour de France began. I've covered that in detail. Go and check that out on the channel. It's a really, really good podcast. And a year before that, a major Spanish doping investigation known as Operation Puerto had cast a shadow over the race and kept a number of the leading riders away from that year's Tour de France.

So when the Tour set off in London in July 2007, it wasn't entering some uncomplicated new era. It was trying to persuade the public that the race ahead could be believed while arguments about the previous era were still unresolved. And one of the biggest names at the start of the race was Alexander Vinokourov. Vinokourov was a rider that people loved to watch. He was a bit of a fan's favourite. He raced aggressively. He attacked. He had panache, or as we'd say, that cyclismo. And he had the kind of reputation that made victory feel possible, even when the race wasn't going in his way. He never knew when he was beating.

He was also one of the favourites to win the Tour de France that year. Then in the first week, he crashed. His knees were badly cut up and he lost time. From that point, every day he stayed in the race. It became this comeback story, like a mini unfolding redemption story. And on 21st of July, in the individual time trying to albi, he looked as though that comeback had arrived. Vinokourov won the stage by more than a minute. For a rider had been so badly injured and fallen behind in the lost time, this was a remarkable performance. Then came another turn.

The next day in the mountains, he'd almost lost half an hour. His realistic chance of winning the Tour de France absolutely vanished. But on the day following that, the 23rd of July, he attacked again and he won the mountain stage. Where have we seen this before? Landis dropped on stage 16, wins on stage 17

So within three days, Vinokourov had won a time trial, totally collapsed out of overall contention, and come back to win one of the hardest stages in the Pyrenees.

This was the sporting story on the Monday evening that everyone was talking about. On Tuesday, the rest day though, another story broke. A blood sample taken after his time trial win, it returned an adverse analytical finding. He'd been popped in other words. The laboratory had found a mixed population of red blood cells, a result indicating red blood cell transfusion. In simple terms, a transfusion involving blood from another person into his body. Vinokourov asked for his B sample to be analysed and that matters in this story. At that point, the news broke. The first finding was a public one and the requested confirmation process was still to come further down the line, but Astana had no choice but to suspend them. The tour organisers asked the whole team to withdraw and Astana agreed. That meant the whole team left, everyone, including riders who'd been sitting high in the overall classification. They were paying the sporting price for that finding involving Vinokourov. Although his later test result was not evidence at this point, and it definitely was not evidence either A or B sample that any of his teammates had doped. For viewers though of the Tour de France that year, the effect was immediate. One of the biggest stars in the race, one of the most charismatic riders the race had produced. He'd also won two spectacular stages. Him and his team were now gone before the next stage even began.