It's about time somebody stood up against the UCI, they have had a Nelsonian view of doping for way too long and have been complicit in the ongoing scandals. Here we are 9 years after the Festina affair and 8 Years after Pantani's exclusion from the Giro and they haven't changed a thing.

Alan, middlesbrough,

I wish my team Charlton were on drugs last year.

Just Say No.

Zammo, Grange Hill,

The sooner this annual TV yawn is taken off the screen the
better.

John Vestey, Porto Ercole, Italy

Cycling, and track and field are a joke. Full of drug cheats and liars. Baseball is the same too.

There needs to be a universal code implemented by governing bodies that have the same policy and one rule for all.

You'll never remove the cheats from sports, but you can make it harder across the board.

More power to WADA to catch those cheats, both present, past and future.

S.Smith, London.,

Yes, I quite agree the Irishman must be mad or something far more sinister.... if you want to clear up the sport, be really really tough on drug cheats and instil a very tough regime of testing and one warning and you're out. Don't spoil it for the clean riders in the race, and the rest of us watching.
from someone desperately hoping that Cadel Evans might win!!!!!

peta, Carcassonne, France

Sorry Brian, football,that is british football has ineffective dope control.They make appointment s with a players to be tested.
When the testers turned up at the training ground to test Ferdinand (by appointment),he avoided them and is reported to have 'gone shopping'. So he was presumed to have had something to hide.
If they did testing before and after games then they would be more effective. But perhaps the sport doesn't want that,after all, as seen with cycling, catching cheats causes bad publicity for the game.

Burrator, St Sulpice , France

it baffles me that a chap who has tested clean,is thrown out of the tour for supposedly misleading his team manager.
mexico immigration has always stamped passeports on admission and exit from the country so it seems a no brainer to check and clarify the truth.
if the dane in question has drugged then it shows a sad lack of detection procedures.
having watched the beginning of the tour have now given up as it seems bizarrily managed

john haydon rowe, el ejido,

UK Sport demands that all its professional athletes announce 1 hour per day, five days a week, throughout the year (training and competition) as to where they will be. During this time they can be randomly tested. If they miss tests there are severe repurcussions (Tim Don, one of Britains top hopes for a gold medal) was banned for three months and, initially, banned from any future Olympic competition (he was only reinstated after it was agreed that two of the missed tests were due to failings of the (new) system rather than Don trying to decieve.

Why can't this system (or very similar) be used world and sport wide?

If the cycling community truly want to clean up their act they must take urgent action to be seen to be doing so. Until that time their sport will always be mired in controversy and carry the smear caused by drugs.
I do not believe that the majority of riders are doping. They should all stand together and announce that they want a robust, year round testing system.

Michael Moncreiff, Sheffield,

Mister Gibbs, you don't know what your talking about. There are about 600 drugtests taken in the Tour de France. Earlier this week I heard an interview on the Belgian tv with Gilles de Bilde a former player of PSV eindhoven and the Belgian National squad, Who said that in his whole career he is only been tested 5 times. Michael Rasmussen has, before he had to leave the Tour, been tested 15 times in two weeks. I'm still wondering why only the names of the cyclists have been given free on the Fuentes list while there were over 400 names on that list and 120 of that were cyclists. That list contained also tennisplayers and soccerplayers. Why are those names not been given free?

Joop Hazenbroek, Gouda, The Netherlands

The useless blazers that misrule sport can always be relied upon to start talking about things like the "cycling family" when someone exposes their incompetence and threatens their personal power - which is the only thing that attracted them to the job in the first place

Oliver Chettle, Bedford,

The UCI failed in their responsibility and still feel, in the face of clear evidence to the contrary, that they can deny their lack of effectiveness. The Tour has suffered serious damage to its reputation and the organisers should be listened to. Fewer riders, more tests, life bans, massive fines and an implacable anti doping attitude from the governing bodies. This years tour has been spoilt by a few and a lot of "noise off", I have been disappointed but I still look forward to next July.

mike gee, bournemouth, uk

How can the President of the UCI - therefore the spokesman for the Union- say they are going to withdraw the 45 day rule as it is too harsh! Too harsh for who? People who are possibly trying to cheat in a sport that is trying to clean up it's image. If the Governing body is considering making it easier to avoid dope test how do they hope to improve their sport.

Professional sportsmen and women acknowledge that compulsory random drug testing has to take place to rid their sports of people willing to cheat with banned substances.

Keith, Stockton-on-Tees, UK

What I find inconsistent is that the Tour organizers criticize the UCI for allowing Rasmussen to race. Surely the Tour organizers themselves were well aware of the facts and could have acted accordingly.

Dave Edgars, Wakefield, UK

Are the UCI worried that the sport they have "nurtured" is so contaminated by drugs that a crackdown will lead to dozens being caught and bad publicity for the sport and them?

I struggle to think of another reason why the UCI should be trying to relax drug rules at a time when drug abuse is prevalent and their exising testing is publicy criticised by the World AntiDoping Agency.

What is McQuaid's agenda?

Richard Turner, London,

This Tour de Farce is a fine example of the perils of hitching national pride on sports events. It seems the greater the hype, the deeper the pitfalls. Oh, for the return of amateur sports in the classical sense. Alas, the clock can't be turned back, too much vested interest involved, especially the financial type.

N. Waters, Mississauga, Canada

It's quite simple. Cycling is missing the point. Football has stronger drug testing rules than any other group. Rio Ferdinand missed one test and got an eight month ban. Michael Rasmussen misses four tests and gets no ban. What is the Irishman thinking in defending this farce!!!! Get real!!!!

Brian M Gibbs, Calgary, Canada