I believe the question was “What sport's morals have not been corrupted by too much money.”

Probably none, but the one least tainted is golf. While the amount of prize money on offer means that any Scott Bunface III can make obscene amounts of money for never coming higher than 20th , both journeymen and winners respect the game for what it is – an honest test of their ability on the day. What other sport sees competitors declaring penalties against themselves without the need for a referee, knowing it may cost them a glittering prize?

And when it comes to team golf, the Ryder Cup has plenty of gamesmanship but no hint of ball tampering, “hand of god” or split gloves.

And perhaps because of this, there is a genuine respect between fan and competitor because both share the same outlook. The only difference being the pro golfer has better skill, not better drugs.

Gareth Evans, LONDON, UK

Whilst I agree with what Simon writes I do think the French cycling authorities should be commended for their actions. If other countries were as aggressive in their anti-doping stance we'd have, for example, about six athletes turning up at the next Olympics!

There are many other cycle races throughout the year with almost no-one being excluded and the French Open is the only golf tournament where random drugs test are carried out. Why is France the only country doing these tests and would it go someway to explaining the dearth of international French sporting talent right now?

Personally, as drug taking is obviously the norm and not the exception, I'd let anything go, ie, athletes in whatever sport can take whatever they want. At least that way there'd be no doubt as to what we're watching and it'd be interesting to see just how quickly a human being can, for example, complete the 100 metres, mind you I guess we saw that in Seoul '88 and many times since!

Darren, London, England

Strange how it's all so different with football. In the Tour de France Rasmussen gets thrown out for not turning up for tests long before the Tour started, yet it ends up with Bradley Wiggins and the rest of the Cofidis team having to withdraw too.

This is akin to to Manchester United having to withdraw from the Champions League because Rio Ferdinand didn't turn up for testing, yet we didn't see that happen, and neither did journalists write ad nauseum about drugs in football.

Cycling has become a scapegoat for critics of drug taking, based on ignorance, and disinterest until there's a scandal. Let's not forget the excellent job done by London and Kent in hosting the start of the Tour, and get the whole thing into a sensible perspective!

Chris Oldham, Shrewsbury, UK

No, I'm saying that the general population would have a differnet attitude if England were a chance of winning it for the first time.

Dave, Sydney,

Don't throw out the baby with the bathwater. I have watch the Tour for years on US TV, getting up in the middle of the night sometimes, and will continue to do so because I think cycling unlike other sports are doing a good job of catching cheats and kicking them out. Now if American football, baseball, and basketball would do as good a job of testing and punishing the violators we would all enjoy our sports more.

Gordon, Roseville, USA/CA

The Saturday edition of the London Times sold in Dublin has, for the past two weeks, been missing some sections (eg Books and The Knowledge). Is this a deliberate policy change or some distribution difficulty?

tom collins, Dublin, Ireland

Perhaps you should be asking the Spanish Justice Dept who exactly were the one hundred plus other athetes, footballers and tennis players involved in Operation Puerto. Why was it only the cyclists that were named and shamed, are double standards at work,

Eric Farquharson, Walton-on-Thames, Surrey, UK

I agree with a lot of what Simon says especially about how professional sport is corrupted by the over inflated payments to participants, in particular in football. However, many of the cyclists riding in the Tour de France will not earn in a year what most Premiership footballers earn in a week. At least cycling is not afraid to name and shame those caught. Imagine the uproar if a leading goalscorer was found to be positive just before the climax of a season, or semi finals of a major competition and suspended.

Malcolm Richardson, Coventry, West Midlands

Dave in Sydney, are you suggesting that you're only allowed to criticise the structure and organisation of a sporting event if you win it?

Matt Jones, London, UK

Why blame the Tour de France? If so many cheats are caught in just 3 weeks out of 52, that shows that the tour is vigilant. Should we ask if the problems are with the UCI. They are the ones who insist on Protour teams being entered, and the ones who break their own rules to let cyclists enter, revealing this during the tour. If the UCI appear to use the grand tours to avoid their responsibilities, perhaps ASO and WADA will have to shoulder them?

Brian Gates, Gillingham, UK

Good article, Mr Barnes, and you are right to say that doping is only one manifestation of the tendency towards corruption and cheating in all sports.

However, you're wrong to suggest that every sport does not have a problem with institutionalised doping. It is possible that netball is immune - I don't know enough about it to have an opinion - but most sports have a serious drug problem. Track and field is just as riddled with it as cycling, and in a still more dangerous state of denial. Footballers, tennis players, golfers, baseball players, American footballers, swimmers...I could go on. The Operation Puerto scandal has been presented as a cycling issue, but there were hundreds of other sportsmen on Dr Fuentes' books: we just never discovered their names.

The drug issue is complex: when does medication become doping? But anyone who thinks it's just a problem for cycling and athletics is kidding themselves.

C. Marshall, Sunderland,

Some strong points but, I think, some slightly strained ones too.

"The Champions League fails to deliver the excitement of the old European Cup, but it makes a lot more money." The latter point is true, but I'm old enough to remember the finals of 1978, 1979, 1980, 1981, 1982 and 1983, all of which ended 1-0. I'm not quite old enough to remember Derby being cheated out of the 1973 final by Juventus, but it does prove the old European Cup wasn't quite the Corinthian affair of legend.

And if you want to criticise the Rugby World Cup for being too big (which it is, but only by four teams), it seems unfair to criticise Canada, one-time quarter-finalists (16 years ago, admittedly) and only two places below Scotland in the present IRB world rankings.

Matt Jones, London, UK

The English would stop whinging about the cricket world cup, if they were any good at it.

Dave, Sydney,

Can we have some balance here please?
Of the 189 riders in the Tour - just two were found to have 'doped' on the Tour, another to have 'doped' before the Tour and one to have lied to his team as to his whereabouts.

Not a very high percentage ( but I agree, still too many ) but because of the profile of the event - the whole of cycling is deemed to be corrupt !

Have a look at athletics before you condemn our sport...

Iain, Northampton, UK

Claiming the tour is reminally ill may sound a bit premature. The UCI might be, which is why ASO (the group that's in charge of the Tour) have decided to cut the links with the UCI, which, as most international sporting federations, has been plagued by corruption for too long to boast any credibility.
By the way, cycling does have an unmatched number of doping scandals, but that's also because it has the toughest policy in the field. If you bury your head in the sand, you will not see what's truly happening. Other sports get away with these scandals mostly because there's so much money involved. I love football but just try this eye-opening experiment : watch reruns of major events of the 70s or 80s and see played idly walk on the pitch, and I'm talking about those in possession of the ball and in the opponent team's half. Unthinkable today. And that's in a game which has become so much more demanding in terms of speed and intensity, but whose top players can log in up to 70 games...

François BOUTHIAUX, PONTARLIER, FRANCE

This article contains a lot of good stuff about drugs and sport but it grates where it tries to circumscribe the problem to the Tour. As it happens, it could just be the Tour's bad luck to be the first big event to have this big big problem explode in its face. All sports are rife with drugs. And we all know that. Where is it going to explode next? Beijing? Or London?

John, London, UK

Sports that rely mainly on physical prowess, such as cycling, athletics and swimming, are probably doomed, because the pharmacists will be able to outwit the organisers. Sooner or later they will develop a completely undetectable drug. Sports that rely on skill, such as football, rugby and cricket can survive a fair amount of corruption and greed because they are fundamentally still worth watching.

Frank Upton, Solihull,

Some good points but Simon, like most UK journalists, doesn't mention that there were also allegations that football was involved in Operacion Puerto. Real Madrid and Barcelona were linked to Eufemiano Fuentes, the blood doping doctor.

S, Brussels, Belgium

Thanks for a balanced view for a change. Cycling gets bad press because it's easy to attack and has huge problems. But sport in general does.

Six medalists at recent major championships have tested positive in the last month or so - the most recent being 800m indoor world record holder Jolanda Ceplak. Where have we seen the hue and cry in the UK press on this?

Operacion Puerto we're told says that there were more non-cyclists involved in blood doping including footballers and tennis players. How strange that we haven't heard who they are; only cyclists.

k blackwell, Yorkshire,

Simon Barnes has done what so many have failed to do in writing about the Tour.
The Tour is, undoubtedly, a minority sport in this country and its annual coverage reflects this.
Throughout the year, we read stories and non-stories about football, so much so that much of what is said is forgotten. We can pick and choose what we remember - to remember all of it would be almost impossible.
On the other hand, cycling's coverage is limited to 3 weeks each year, unless some scandal breaks that is deemed newsworthy. This greatly restricts what we read in the press and so most people are only subject to the bad news stories of the sport. Hence, cycling is viewed as a sport full of cheats and dopers. Undoubtedly, cycling has not helped itself in this regard and cannot blame anyone else for its failings.
What Barnes has achieved where others have failed is to put cycling in a sporting context for a public largely ignorant of the sport.
It is not perfect but nor is it alone.

Flying Karpets, Glasgow,

A very interesting article by Simon Barnes, but I don't agree with his conclusion that the Tour De France is destroyed. Note the record numbers of spectators and tv viewers!
I believe that most people realise that all professional sports have a degree of misuse of "banned substances", but they are not all as strict as cycling in trying to detect abuse.
Also, re-transfusing ones own blood, or having a high testosterone level, ( as 2 of the Tour cyclists were respectively accused of, and immediately thrown off the race) will leave room for argument which wouldn't be so for eg. amphetamines.

David Underwood, coleorton, England