Scandals fail to flatten appeal as Tour de Georgia cranks up

MACON, Ga. — Although the sport of cycling still bears the tread marks from the doping scandal that ran over last year's Tour de France, Bitsy Stanford didn't hesitate to cheer the riders in the Tour de Georgia at the first stage finish line Monday.

"As far as scandals and stuff, it does not tarnish my opinion at all," said Stanford, 44, of Forsyth, who was attending her third Tour de Georgia in the race's five-year history. "People are going to find scandals in everything. It just depends on who you talk to."

Or on what you read. Gary Smith of Athens used to turn on his computer every morning to read the latest cycling news. But as the news became focused on drugs and doping, he stopped scanning the Web sites.

"I still enjoy it; I just don't support it the way I did at one time," said Smith, 50. "I don't say I won't again, but it's getting more and more difficult to participate."

Cycling insiders acknowledge that the sport's popularity has been damaged in recent years by scandals. Even some die-hard fans lining the route Monday couldn't deny that.

The Tour de Georgia has never had a positive drug test. But did Smith think the 116 riders who crossed the finish line were all clean?

"Absolutely not," he said.

But Micah Rice, team manager of the Athens-based Jittery Joe's team, said a sport like baseball has nightly highlights to take the focus off drug stories, but cycling doesn't get much television time. The Tour de Georgia made headlines last month as it desperately sought sponsorship money to go forward with this year's race.

"There's not enough positives," Rice said, "to counteract the negatives."

As the Tour de Georgia began its 667-mile journey that will take it around the state and into Tennessee, its defending champion, Floyd Landis, is defending only himself.

Landis tested positive for a higher-than-allowed amount of testosterone en route to winning the 2006 Tour de France. His case will go to arbitration next month.

Landis is holding a "Floyd Fairness Fund" town hall fund-raiser in Atlanta on Wednesday at Cox Enterprises Inc. (which owns The Atlanta Journal-Constitution).

Monday's Stage 1 winner, Italy's Daniele Contrini of Tinkoff Credit System, is a teammate of Tyler Hamilton, who recently came off a two-year suspension. Hamilton tested positive for blood doping, a finding he continues to dispute.

"I'm certainly still angry, which helps me, I think, ride faster," said Hamilton, who at age 36 lost two prime years of racing. "But I'm not riding with revenge or anything like that. But I'm still pretty [ticked] off."

Hamilton, who won the 2004 Olympic gold medal in the time trial, is competing in his first race in the United States since 2001.

"It was really nice to have a lot of people encouraging me and welcoming me back to racing," he said, adding that since his return in February, "Nobody's come up to me and flipped me the bird, but if they choose to, that's fine. I'd respect that."

Ben Day, an Australian who placed third, had no problem with Hamilton's return.

"He's done his time," he said. "I don't want to assume anything. He's a cyclist like the rest of us. I know he works just as hard as the rest of us and we go through a helluva lot together. Good for him for being back. And hopefully he just gets on with doing his cycling and leaves all that stuff behind."

But Jeff Corbett, team director for Health Net, said the sport has "definitely taken a hit." But he said that's not all bad.

"That means that that kind of stuff is getting out in the open and it's taken a hit because the stuff is getting policed," Corbett said. "You've got to weather this hit in order to clean the sport up."

He said other sports, including baseball and track and field, have had to go through a similar phase.

"This is actually a sign that things are moving in the right direction," Corbett said.

After every stage of the seven-day race, the winner and the holder of the yellow jersey are tested, as well as two riders selected at random before the end of the race.

The Slipstream/Chipotle team calls itself the "cleanest team" on the Tour de Georgia. It has a partnership with the Agency for Sporting Ethics and its 23 athletes voluntarily agreed to undergo about 50 blood tests and 50 urine tests this year, much higher than the average.

Hamilton said his last blood test was last month and he has had about five urine tests this year, which is normal.

"Take my hair if you want it," he said, pulling out a strand.

Hamilton uses his case as motivation.

"Is it over?" he said. "For me, yeah, it's over. You know, I'll always have it. You can't forget it, like it never happened. I think about it every day."

Karen Rosen writes for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. E-mail: krosen AT ajc.com.