30-07-2007This Month 30th Jul 13:43
During the first week of the 2007 Tour de France, the 40th anniversary of the death of Tom Simpson passed largely unnoticed.
Tom died during a mountain stage on 13 july 1967 he collapsed from heat exhaustion.
For much of the race it looked like the riders had failed to learn any lessons from Simpson's passing either.
An estimated three million people watching two days of racing in the UK - making them a massive success - but suspicions persisted through what should have been the most open and exciting race in almost 20 years.
Alexandre Vinokourov was found in possession of someone else's red blood cells after an apparently heroic time-trial victory - achieved with over 30 stitches in his shredded knees - and his Astana team were prompty asked to exit the race.
Michael Rasmussen snatched the yellow jersey with a cavalier mountain attack into Tignes and apparently secured overall victory with another escape up the Col d'Aubisque.
But later that same day he was withdrawn by his Rabobank team after a television commentator mentioned meeting him in Italy in June, when he had told his team and doping testers he was in Mexico.
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