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  Leblanc: Tour isn't too tough Tour organizers plan to draw up good conduct charter
Posted: Wednesday September 02, 1998 08:07 PM
PARIS (CNN/SI) -- Following on the heels of the 1998 Tour de France which was rocked by drug scandals, tour director Jean-Marie Leblanc said in an interview published Tuesday that the tour organizers were planning a good conduct charter for the cycling classic. "We'll edit a good conduct charter, of ethics to which the teams will have to adhere," Leblanc said. "From now on, we're going to reflect on the manner of selecting the teams [for the annual three-week tour]. To the sporting criteria will be added moral criteria," he told the sports daily L'Equipe. Only half the 189-strong peleton that started the race in Dublin on July 11 rode down the Champs Elysees in Sunday's finish after six teams withdrew and one was thrown out following a widespread probe into doping by the French police. Marco Pantani of Italy won the race. Leblanc said suggestions that the near century-old Tour de France was too tough were wrong. "I'm tired of repeating that for 10 years we've lowered the bar," he said. "But you mustn't go too far or you'll distort the tour, which by definition calls on courage, suffering and all those virtues which the crowds admire. "The current parameters are good and we won't touch them," he said. Two days' rest, as opposed to one, had already been planned for next year's race even before this year's. Leblanc said he was optimistic about the future of the race. "I get the impression that the cataclysm has been so wide that all those involved are going to examine their conscience," he said. "I believe in a sort of consensus to fix limits and not overstep them ... If that ends up in a tour raced at 35 kph things will go well. "Cycling is a sport of relative and not absolute values. All you need is a first [placed rider], a second, a 100th, but there is no need for the notion of a record. "If it has to be raced ordinarily and no longer at a super [level], that doesn't matter." The Festina team was expelled from the race after one of its medical staff was caught with banned substances in a team car days before the start. Team director Bruno Roussel then admitted to planned organized drug distribution within the team. Six teams quit later in the race in protest at what they regarded as heavy-handed police investigations and interrogations during the event.
Reuters contributed to this report. | |||||||||||||||||||||
Tour director Jean-Marie Leblanc plans on instilling a moral code for the tour as well as the existing athletic code 