Jalabert abandons, Barloworld dumps cycling

Those are two stories.

Nicolas Jalabert of the Agritubel team has abandoned the Tour de France.

And team Barloworld has decided that it will cease sponsorship of cycling effective the day after the end of the 2008 Tour de France.

Jalabert was just tired and he decided enough was enough with Alps coming tomorrow.

Barloworld made their move because their rider - and the winner of the time trial in stage 6 - tested positive for EPO. And their company policy forbids drug use. So, to be consistent they cannot rightly keep paying riders if any of those riders are using drugs.

Idiot riders! Stupid doping.

Nimes

According to letour.fr,

The last time a stage of the Tour de France concluded in Nimes, the runner-up was Nicolas Jalabert. He was part of an escape group on the day the Tour visited this city in the Gard department in 2004. The winner was Aitor Gonzalez who was riding for the Fassa Bortolo team at the time.
Jalabert has just been seen hovering around the rear of the peloton expressing little interest in racing too hard in the first half of the 13th stage.

Pretty cool. I was in France in 2004 and actually in Nimes, as mentioned in an earlier post.

Unfortunately, I left the country before the start of the Tour.