Tour de France, 2006

We've known for a year that Lance Armstrong would not win the 2006 Tour de France. What we discovered this evening is that neither will Jan Ullrich. Or Ivan Basso. Or Francesco Mancebo. Or six other riders who were dismissed from the race by their team racing directors because their names are listed on a document associated with a blood-doping scandal in Spain. It's a fairly shocking piece of news. Not that there are allegations of doping or performance-enhancing drugs - that's daily, trite, commonplace and boring. But the fact that the team directors all got together and agreed to dismiss the riders whose names appeared without any further evidence of guilt - that's shocking. And it completely changes the landscape of the race...