Lance Armstrong wasn’t at Thursday’s 2006 Tour de France presentation, but the recently retired seven-time champion was still on everyone’s mind. Riders talked of a wide-open race without Armstrong’s dominating presence while race organizers tried not to talk about him at all. Armstrong, who is in New York preparing to host this week’s edition of "Saturday Night Live," chose not to attend the annual ceremony in Paris. If he wanted to relive moments of past glory, he didn’t miss much. The American was largely ignored in a slickly produced 10-minute highlight film to introduce the 93rd edition of cycling’s most important race. Tour officials said that wasn’t accidental. “Of course, I cannot pretend this is just accidental. The winner of the previous Tour was shown, but he wasn’t highlighted, either,” ASO president Patrice Clerc told VeloNews.

Clerc added that given the pending investigation of Armstrong’s 1999 Tour win that ASO “felt that putting Lance Armstrong in the spotlight was something we couldn’t do.” The Texan has been fending off allegations since August made by the French newspaper L’Equipe (which, like the Tour, is owned by ASO) that he used the banned blood-doping hormone EPO in winning his first Tour. In late 2004, researchers at the French national doping laboratory had re-tested samples from the 1999 Tour and revealed that 15 of those samples showed indications of EPO use. A reporter from L’Equipe managed to connect those numbered samples with the names of the riders who submitted them. The paper provided documentation showing that six of those positive samples were from Armstrong. Armstrong, 34, has vehemently denied the charges, characterizing the effort to tarnish his image as part of a larger “witch hunt” and criticized French authorities. Newly elected UCI president Pat McQuaid reiterated Thursday that the UCI is supporting the independent investigation, in part to find out how the results from urine samples were leaked to the press. McQuaid also reconfirmed that Armstrong could not lose his 1999 Tour crown regardless of the outcome of the independent panel. While the story never really got a lot of play in the United States after the initial flush of attention, the so-called “Affaire Armstrong” continues to broil in the French media.

With the doping once again in the headlines, Tour de France officials put the fight against doping center-stage in Thursday’s presentation and relegated Armstrong’s once-shining profile to an absolute minimum. “Until we know the results of those investigations, we should not take position on one side or the other,” Clerc said. “We wanted to remain neutral as possible. Of course, when you are just neutral after seven victories in one event, you don’t look neutral at all.” Others were angered by the apparent snub to Armstrong and his legacy of a record seven consecutive yellow jerseys. “It’s hypocritical,” said Patrick Lefevere, manager of the Quick Step-Innergetic team. “Armstrong brought so much more international attention to cycling. I have a lot of strong feelings about this, so I better not say anything else.” Johan Bruyneel, Armstrong’s sport director and longtime confidante at Discovery Channel, said he upset by the Tour presentation. “Everyone has to judge for themselves,” Bruyneel said. “Lance realizes where he is now is because of the Tour de France and what the race has given him. I think he’s also given a lot back and that the Tour wouldn’t be where it is today without a big U.S. champion. It’s sad that certain people cannot recognize that.” Despite the chill in relations, Clerc said Armstrong would be welcomed back to the Tour whenever he wishes. “Of course. Why not? Welcome, well … ” Clerc said with a smile. “I still have a little problem with what he said about the country. I understand that someone does like Mr. X or Mr. Y or a group of people, but I have a problem about (criticism) of a whole country.” It’s obvious that the spat between Armstrong and the Tour isn’t going cool anytime soon.

On the 24th of July we turned the page on a long, very longchapter in the history of the Tour de France. And one month later, currentevents made it clear to us that it was just as well that this was so.Does this justify closing the entire book and erasing all the emotionsthat, for so many years, the Tour and its champions have provided us with?Taken as a whole, judged on its lifelong worth – like an artist or a poet– and in particular on its future productions, we want to believe thatthe Tour de France deserves a better fate. The dream that it embodies,the values that it is capable of generating mean that it has a duty tobe able to hold its head up in pride.It is towards this goal that we are working, as of now, as of this 2006edition, which begins with the announcement of its itinerary and its specialfeatures. All of those, still as many in number and still as enthusiastic,who have faith in the sport and the men, will join us in our hopes forthe Tour, right up to the 1st of July, when, in the thick of the finalof the Football World Cup in neighbouring Germany, we will set off fromStrasbourg.Here we will be warmly welcomed. The impetus given to this Grand Départby the people of Alsace – and our German neighbours, we are sure! – willcertainly determine the rest of the competition, and its share of unknownelements: the new faces, the performances, the behaviour, the prevailingmood at the heart of our mobile community, a community that today includessome 5000 people.Hence, over the course of these next few months, we have a job and amission to fulfil.The job covers the habitual responsibilities of the organisers of thegreatest cycling event in the world. These involve the drawing up of anitinerary to satisfy all categories of riders, concern for their safety,for their well being, without forgetting the festivities that go hand inhand with the competition, and the working conditions of those who followthe race and who ensure its impact at an international level.In this respect, you will notice that there is a mixture and a balancebetween the new and the traditional. The sports arena provided as the backdropfor the event, in France and in our neighbouring countries (visits to theBelgium, Luxembourg, Netherlands and Spain) and the tremendous enthusiasmthat awaits us are similarly promising guarantees.As for the mission, it remains the same and it plagues us, constantly,like a knife in the back: to guarantee in the best possible way equal chancesfor all competitors, which evidently means respecting the rules. In otherwords, the war against doping. A war that is never entirely won, as weare only too sadly aware. We participate wholly in this ceaseless combat– technically, financially, morally – where it is possible, along withthe delegated regulatory authorities.We have this time called upon the most distinguished among them, theWorld Anti-Doping Agency and its Chairman. As we know only too well thatin cycling, in sport in general, just as in all human activities, the optionsare always the same and it is either order or chaos that rules…

Jean-Marie Leblanc
Deputy Managing DirectorChristian Prudhomme
Director of Cycling