PARIS — From the very start to the very finish, doping was along for the ride on the Tour de France.
The final act Sunday was supposed to be a champagne-sipping, idyllic run to the Champs-Elysees for winner Carlos Sastre of Spain. Instead, it was yet another announcement of a positive drug test.
That the bust involved a Kazakh rider who was never in contention didn’t matter. Once again, drugs left their mark on cycling’s premier event.
Until Sunday’s finale, the race had gone 10 days without a doping scandal — three others had already marred the three-week race.
This time, Dmitriy Fofonov tested positive for a “very heavy dose” of heptaminol after Thursday’s 18th stage, said Pierre Bordry, the head of France’s anti-doping agency. Fofonov was immediately fired by his Credit Agricole team.
“These guys are crazy, and the sooner they start learning, the better,” said International Cycling Union chief Pat McQuaid. “You can never rule out at the Tour de France — the biggest event of the year — that these guys are going to take risks.”
Sunday’s doping episode gave the Tour a certain symmetry: veteran Spanish rider Manuel Beltran tested positive after the first stage.
Bordry said Fofonov was asked whether he had a medical exemption for heptaminol, and he did not provide one. The stimulant is used as a vasodilator that helps relieve bronchial spasms.
“Fofonov said he bought the product on the Internet,” said Roger Legeay, sporting director of Credit Agricole. “He says that it was for cramps, but that he forgot to tell the team doctor.”
Fofonov, known mainly as a strong climber, finished in 19th place in the Tour.
The announcement compounded the damage of positive tests for the banned blood booster EPO — cycling’s designer drug — by Italy’s Riccardo Ricco and Spaniards Beltran and Moises Duenas Nevado.
By the finish Sunday, Sastre was seven seconds behind Australia’s Cadel Evans, giving him a 58-second margin of victory. Bernhard Kohl of Austria finished 1:13 back in third.
Christian Vande Velde of the Boulder-based Garmin-Chipotle team finished fifth.
