In the scandal-ridden Tour, talk that the drug busts were good news was overshadowed by a sense that the sport might never recover

Cantador, who survived brain surgery three years ago and doping questions in '06, held the yellow jersey through a searing time trial and a final cruise down the Champs-Élysées. Peter Dejong/AP

For three weeks they admired his matador's daring, his dark good looks and his abundant charisma. But as Spain's precocious Alberto Contador stepped onto the podium and the strains of La Marcha Real filled the Champs-­Élysées, cycling fans had one overwhelming thought: Please, God, let this kid be clean.

This being an odd-­numbered year, the Tour de France proceeded in a clockwise direction around the countryside, like water swirling down a commode. That appeared to be the destination of this ­event -- ­indeed, this sport -- ­during the most ­scandal-scarred Tour ever. In one 36-hour period last week, three riders (including the race leader) and two teams were cast out of the race.

Resolute optimists regarded the positives and subsequent ejections as a painful but necessary step. Here, they insisted, was ­evidence -- ­however ill-timed and embarrassing -- that the more sophisticated tests and targeted anti­doping program instituted in the last year by the UCI, cycling's governing body, were working. David Millar, an outspoken Scot who has emerged as the peloton's self-­appointed anti­drug crusader, went so far as to say that this Tour had been "the cleanest, or one of the cleanest, we've ever done. That ­doesn't mean there's no doping. It's just not as prevalent as it once was."

Speaking several hours after Sunday's final stage, Millar also announced that he was signing with Slipstream/Chipotle, a relatively new American squad best known for its argyle jerseys and a comprehensive, ­cutting-edge anti­doping program in which team members are tested weekly by an independent agency. Slipstream is planning to sign American riders Dave Zabriskie and Christian Vande Velde and is expected to receive a wild-card bid to next year's Tour. Which means there will be at least one U.S.-based team in the race.

Another remarkable testament to cycling's woes: After its eighth Tour victory in nine years, the Discovery Channel team finds itself on the cusp of extinction. Owned by San Francisco--based Tailwind Sports (in which ­seven-time Tour winner Lance Armstrong holds a stake), the squad is without sponsorship for next season. As corporations rethink their investment in athletes who have repeatedly proved that they cannot be trusted, the question must be asked: Is this a sport in its death throes?

Absolutely not, declared T-Mobile's Linus Gerdemann, 24, who followed his stage 7 win with a cri de coeur against doping. "The news has not been positive," the German rider later told SI, "but it is positive that the controls are working."

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