An event that major US sports and news outlets once considered nothing more than the Lance Armstrong show, this year's Tour de France has been in the American headlines more than any Tour in my lifetime. And not in a way that has been particularly flattering to the sport. Through this article, I hope to give a somewhat more subtle recounting of the race than most of the American media has to date, and I hope to reveal some underreported facts about the controversy that has developed since the end of the Tour.

First, the update: the day before the start of this year's Tour, roughly 30 riders were named as being "under investigation" by Spanish police for links to a Spanish doctor who had allegedly helped them cheat. Most of these riders, including the two top contenders for this year's yellow jersey, were suspended by their teams because of these allegations. As a result, none of the top five finishers from last year's Tour de France started this year's race: the winner (Lance Armstrong) because he retired, the second through fourth place finishers (Ivan Basso, Jan Ullrich and Francisco Mancebo) because they were suspended for being under investigation, and the fifth place finisher (Alexandre Vinokourov) because so many of his teammates were suspended they didn't have enough riders to meet the minimum requirements for a "team."

Before we go any farther with the update, there are two important points to make here: 1) at the time, none of these riders had been proven guilty of anything by any governing body of any sort. They were asked not to race simply because they were under investigation; and 2) since the end of the tour all riders on Alexandre Vinokourov's team have been cleared of all allegations. Additionally, all 13 members of another team that had been under investigation have been cleared as well. None of the suspended riders has been found guilty.

Now, let's get on with things: once the race got underway, it followed its typical week 1 trajectory -- lots of flat stages where nothing happens until the last 500 meters of a 200 kilometer race. The Australian man they call "Pocket Rocket" showed his dominance as a sprinter and the Norwegian man they call "Thor" showed that extremely large Norse gods can wear yellow, if only briefly and by the slimmest of margins.

In many ways, this year's race also took a typical trajectory through weeks 2 and 3, which is to say that things started to get important. However, this year's race was far different from previous years because of one important fact: there was no clear favorite for the overall title.

During weeks 2 and 3, as the Tour proceeds through the mountains, it is the job of the top contenders' teams to control the pace of the race. It is their job to make sure that their contender is able to keep pace with the rivals that are slightly ahead of him in the standings. But these teams have to be careful: any work that they do to help their guy gain time on the rival immediately in front of him will also help the rival immediately behind their guy gain time in the overall standings. In years past, when there were clear race favorites, most teams did not have to worry about helping the guy right behind them in the standings because they knew that their guy would likely gain back any time lost to the guy right behind him in a one-on-one setting.

But this year, with no clear favorite in the race, any benefit a team gave to the guy right behind them might come back to haunt them in subsequent stages because, on any given day, the guy right behind might be stronger than their own rider. As such, this year's mountain stages did not have the clockwork-organized proceedings of the Lance Armstrong Era, but rather consisted mostly of one team waiting around for another team to do something. In some ways, that's very exciting because fans did not know what to expect, with the possibility of an attack at any moment by any person. But in other ways -- ways that appeal to our sense of order and organization -- it leaves a guy longing for the days of Lance.

As many of you know at this point, all this waiting and watching ultimately landed a guy named Floyd Landis in the winner's jersey on the last day in Paris. How he got there is one of the most exciting stories in cycling history. Floyd first took the race lead on the last day in the Pyrenees - about ten days before the race ended in Paris. Then he gave it back as the peloton crossed the South of France for three days. Then he regained the lead on the first day in the Alps. Then he turned in a terrible performance and fell totally out of contention on the second day in the Alps. Then, in one of the great performances in the history of cycling, he came roaring back to the top of the leader board on the third day in the Alps. Finally, he secured the yellow jersey for good on the second day out of the Alps -- one day before the race ended in Paris.

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Three days after the race ended, the body that governs the Tour announced that it had discovered an "adverse analytic event" during the race. Shortly thereafter, they leaked the news that the "adverse event" was related to a urine sample given by Floyd Landis after his epic Stage 17 win, the one that brought him roaring back from the depths of despair and into contention.

In bike racing, they look for just about any "adverse analytic event" you could imagine. In this particular case, the "event" circulating in Floyd Landis' blood was related to testosterone. More specifically, it was related to the ratio of testosterone to epitestosterone.

The reason the authorities care about this ratio is that testosterone has major effects on the athletic performance of humans - over time it helps them build muscle, recover more quickly from workouts and generally get more hairy and intimidating. However, epitestosterone does pretty much nothing, athletically speaking. As such, if one were to want to cheat, one would only add testosterone to one's blood and not bother with the epitestosterone. By looking at the testosterone to epitestosterone ratio, the thinking goes, you can know whether or not someone has been adding things to his blood that he shouldn't be.

We must pause here for a moment to stress that the only information that has been officially released about Floyd's blood concerns this ratio. Officially speaking, no one has said anything about Floyd's absolute levels of testosterone. As we all learned in middle school math, you can increase the ratio of testosterone to epitestosterone by either increasing the amount of testosterone or decreasing the amount of epitestosterone. In a surprisingly astute bit of reporting, ESPN has noted this fact on several occasions and even gone on to report rumors that the absolute level of testosterone in Floyd's blood was not high at all, but rather his level of epitestosterone was low. This is extremely significant on account of the fact that one must increase the absolute level of testosterone in one's blood if one wants to reap its athletic benefits.

So, when you see a report that Floyd tested positive for "high levels of testosterone," don't believe it. We don't know that yet. In fact some sources say that is specifically not the case.

Additionally, testing is pretty much a constant on the Tour, especially if you are an elite rider. Cycling is the only sport that requires all competitors to file reports every thirty days with its governing body disclosing their expected physical whereabouts on any given day throughout the month so that agents can show up at their doors to randomly test them. Floyd's blood was tested six times during this year's Tour, with no other test showing the "adverse analytic event" that his Stage 17 sample did. On the one hand that's pretty damaging. On the other hand, testosterone isn't the kind of thing you use on a one-off basis. The single dose effects of testosterone, according to most but not all, are essentially nonexistent -- it is over long periods of time that testosterone helps athletes build muscle and increase their performance. But on the third hand, testosterone is partially responsible for aggressiveness in males, and aggression is one thing that Floyd's other-worldly Stage 17 ride had in spades.

There are numerous other mitigating and incriminating factors in this whole saga -- Floyd's Phonak team has been implicated in doping cases before, though that was under previous management. Floyd has a hip condition that could possibly make this the last Tour that he races, but his Mennonite background stresses hard work and integrity. Lance Armstrong has stuck up for Floyd, but Lance Armstrong has stuck up for Floyd.

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This morning, the New York Times is reporting that additional tests have been carried out on Floyd's original blood sample and that these tests indicate the presence of synthetic testosterone. Their information comes from a UCI (cycling's international governing body) official who has chosen to remain nameless.

These new findings may put all questions to rest. But then again, they might not. Regardless, the proceedings surrounding Floyd's blood are sure to continue for months ahead (even though Landis' backup sample will be tested, by special request and decree, before the French begin their national two-week August holiday this weekend). And as they do, other races will continue to happen. Other bikers will continue to cheat and not cheat. The rest of the cycling world will move on. But here in America, we'll hear none of this. We will continue to soak up (frequently inaccurate) information about the physiology of our athletes. And in that way, continue to contribute to the scienceification of our games.

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