Tour de France needs break from tarnished past - media

By Patrick Vignal

PARIS (Reuters) - After descending into farce once again, the Tour de France must make a clean break from a past tarnished by doping scandals, French media wrote on Monday.

"A turn has been taken," was the lead headline of French sports daily L'Equipe, whose publishing group organises cycling's most prestigious race.

"We are now waiting for the 2008 edition to mark a definite break," added the newspaper, hardly mentioning the fact that young Spaniard Alberto Contador won the 2007 Tour under overcast skies in Paris on Sunday.

Sport indeed came second this year after leading figures Alexander Vinokourov and Michael Rasmussen were sent packing over doping affairs.

The Tour had been there before, notably with the 1998 scandal around the Festina team and with the positive test for testosterone by American Floyd Landis on his way to victory in last year's race.

This year's trauma, however, was arguably worse.

Vinokourov, who tested positive for blood doping following his victory in the Albi time trial, was the pre-race favourite and Rasmussen was wearing the coveted yellow jersey when he was sacked by his Rabobank team for lying about his training whereabouts.

Organisers, who have vowed to continue the fight against doping, pointed out that those who had tried to cheat had been caught.