!http://www.active.com/images/newsletters/cyclist/TourdeFrance2007/images/Pensec4150x150.jpg|style=padding:10px;|align=left|src=http://www.active.com/images/newsletters/cyclist/TourdeFrance2007/images/Pensec4150x150.jpg!...and we need it now! I will not talk about Rasmussen this evening as everything has been said and written a hundred times. However, I think it’s time for me to share with you some very important facts.

First of all, it’s pretty obvious but there is an extreme tension on the Tour. All the riders are acting as if everything is normal. They go to press conferences, attend all the meetings planned and all that, but you can see in their eyes that the pressure is getting a bit too high for them. They are even a bit scared of this whole scandal...scared of what you will ask. These guys are passionate and they are scared for their sport. It’s that simple. I wish you could see the thousands of people along the road today who kept on cheering all the riders from the start to the finish line. The Tour is not dead and won’t die. That’s my feeling. The Tour is too big to die and one day it will be the place of a new start, a new cycling.

However, don’t expect me to say a cleaner cycling. Why? Because with 250 blood tests since the beginning of the Tour and only two of them positive, this sport is clean. There will always be cheaters. Always.

But what about soccer? Last year for the World Cup, do you how many blood tests they made? Well, it’s pretty simple: none. They didn’t process a single blood test. It’s pretty easy for the FIFA to say that soccer is clean.

I’m telling you if we were applying all the rules and tests that you in cycling to any other sports, you would see lots of athletes differently.

So, the first question that comes to my mind when I picture that is, why does the media talk about only drugs in cycling? Cycling doesn’t generate as much business as the NBA or the NFL, for example. Cycling is not just one hour like a basketball game. Cycling is not easy to understand if you don’t have an expert eye. So what do you “market," what do you talk about to get some audience and attention? Drugs and doping work!

THe media is just searching for the sensational news, the scoop as you say. Shall we let the media rule this sport and decide what is important or should we help them understand what makes cycling great?

I would go for the second option, if you don’t mind. Remember early this week: the Astana trick to cut the peloton in two parts, all these echappées and all that? This is what we need to spend time on.

Finally, I would like to end with a very positive fact. Riders and all the people who are involved in professional cycling shouldn’t be scared of stopping doping and drug-taking. If they ride from 45 kilometers per hour to 42 kilometers per hour, we won’t care at all. There is no global timing involved in cycling. A 100-meter sprinter doesn’t have that chance because if his times go from 10 seconds to 13 seconds, everybody will start asking: "What the hell is wrong with this guy? He was running way better last year." But in cycling, we won’t even notice. We won’t care because cycling should be and will be one day above all these dirty, useless things.

So enjoy the show because it’s not over!

Ronan

Ronan Pensec participated in 8 Tours, and wore the yellow jersey in the 1990. He now operates Ronan Pensec Events , an official Tour de France operator hosting VIP cycling tours for recreational cycling enthusiasts.