The un-Tour

I thought the only performance substances Jan Ullrich was known to use were donuts.

STRASBOURG, France, June 30 — A doping scandal that could end up being the most widespread in cycling's history brought havoc to the Tour de France on Friday, with several of the top contenders implicated and removed from the field on the eve of the prestigious race.

The field for the Tour, scheduled to begin here Saturday, was already without the sport's biggest star, Lance Armstrong, who retired last year after his record seventh consecutive victory. Now the race will go off without the riders who finished second, third, fourth and fifth behind Armstrong last year — including this year's favorites, Jan Ullrich of Germany and Ivan Basso of Italy.

Ullrich, Basso and at least seven other riders were suspended after a meeting of race organizers and team directors late Thursday in Strasbourg, the starting point for this year's race. The Spanish authorities had sent race organizers a summary of their investigation into a drug ring that they suspect supplied cyclists with drugs and doping equipment used to increase the amount of oxygen-carrying red blood cells in one's body.

On Thursday, Tour organizers and team directors saw the names of the cyclists identified in the investigation and moved to withdraw those riders from the race. Cycling teams and the International Cycling Union agreed to a code of ethics last year that stipulated that riders would not be allowed to participate in the Tour if they were under investigation for doping.

This may make for a more interesting Tour -- more chaotic -- and maybe Levi Leipheimer will build interest in the U.S.