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Cycling couldn't escape its history at this year's Tour de France and is wheeling into the future with contradictions and ambiguities. All the more reason why it needs some honest additions.

Cyclists are rolling into Paris on Sunday, and perhaps symbolic of their doping-tainted Tour, they ride by the Chatenay-Malabry lab where tests are conducted.

No one is doubting Alberto Contador's talent, but the Discovery rider is finding life as the Tour leader a little more daunting.

Alexandre Vinokourov and his Astana team, forced out of the Tour de France after Vinokourov's initial positive test for a banned blood transfusion, have retained the two lawyers defending 2006 Tour de France winner Floyd Landis against doping charges.

Professional cycling is in public spaces. It's chaotic and edgy, thrilling and petty, full of arcane etiquette, rife with ego and political infighting, and often dysfunctional -- never more so than in the past 48 hours.

When word got out that Alexandre Vinokourov had tested positive for a blood transfusion, cyclists weren't immune to the familiar news. Just ask David Millar.

There was Michael Rasmussen's exchange with Alberto Contador at the end of Stage 14 and the Tour leader's continuing refusal to discuss the allegations against him. But there is a bigger communication breakdown at a higher level.

With some unexpected hopefuls rising from the ashes at the Tour de France, teams now face the toughest question heading into the mountains: who are they riding for?

Michael Rasmussen was at the center of another Tour de France controversy Friday and the latest allegations created more theater, and questions, in France.

It was all sprints and strategy Wednesday at the Tour before word got out about Patrik Sinkewitz's flunked drug test. It's a sad commentary for yet another team owner that must face the reality of a doping culture.

Team CSC already is making its mark at the Tour, but the club also is leading a strong cause off the road as young South African riders take on France.

Despite a difficult mountain stage, Discovery Channel team leader Levi Leipheimer stayed with the other overall Tour de France contenders, and his chances to reach the podium are the best ever.

With its doping scandals and other controversies, professional cycling is careening down a path of disillusionment for those who follow the sport. Instead, ESPN.com contributor Bonnie DeSimone suggests, cycling deserves our attention and scrutiny as never before.

It's two days from the Tour de France prologue, and race organizers know some fans might be tuning out this year, critical of doping controversies and questions about great rides of years past. As ESPN.com contributor Bonnie DeSimone writes, those involved with the Tour -- riders, team owners and directors -- were peppered with doping questions Thursday.

With the start of the 2007 Tour de France in view, the lone U.S. cycling team in the Tour -- Discovery Channel -- still must find a new primary sponsor, deal with the larger doping issue facing cycling and find a way to get Levi Leipheimer to the podium, writes ESPN.com contributor Bonnie DeSimone.

It would be easier on everyone if what came out of the Floyd Landis doping arbitration hearing could be quantified somehow, but as ESPN.com contributor Bonnie DeSimone writes, closure remains elusive -- for everyone involved in the case against the 2006 Tour de France winner.