Chasing Lance Armstrong

They're still going after Lance Armstrong.

For reasons good or ill, this time the French are targeting the Union Cycliste Internationale (the UCI or International Cycling Union is in charge of controlling the cyclists for illegal substances), which they claim favored Armstrong and Alberto Contador's Astana team, among others by giving team members 45 minutes' advance notice of the upcoming test (when none, obviously, should be given)…

Offhand, there may be truth to some of the accusations, but it does seem that a government agency wants/wanted, as usual, to meddle and that it — l'Agence française de lutte contre le dopage (AFLD) — is miffed for its "escorts" being denied access by the UCI to the testing places…

Update: Pat Patterson adds some needed perspective:

Any drug that a cyclist is taking now that is popular will not magically disappear in 45 minutes. In some cases the residue of the byproducts of these drugs can last up to weeks not minutes. They are simply trying to imply that this 45 minutes is critical when it is not.

But The Tour is a private race that is not part of any of the other administrative groups but AFLD is quite anxious to take over the tour and has tried this tactic before.