RIIS STRIPPED OF TOUR TITLE

Bjarne Riis

The Tour de France?s decision to erase Bjarne Riis? name from the record books is the thin end of a very fat wedge and must be approached with extreme caution.

Following the Dane?s admission that he won the 1996 Tour while using drugs, the race?s director Christian Prudhomme announced that he would not be welcome at this year?s event. In London on Tuesday he downgraded his rhetoric to say that Riis was not ?worthy? of the Tour de France.

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Sports journalist Lionel Birnie has written professionally for Sunday Times, Procycling and of course Cycling Weekly. He is also an author, publisher, and co-founder of The Cycling Podcast. His first experience covering the Tour de France came in 1999, and he has presented The Cycling Podcast with Richard Moore and Daniel Friebe since 2013. He founded Peloton Publishing in 2010 and has ghostwritten and published the autobiography of Sean Kelly, as well as a number of other sports icons.