The Tour de France has finally lost all credibility as a serious sporting event

The Tour was once one of the pillars of the proud French sporting temple and an integral part of the celebration of the Gallic summer.

But the continued drug abuse by the greedy stars of the tour, who have criminally neglected their fans by their actions, has finally brought the event to its knees and destroyed what few vestiges of credibility that it had.

No lessons were learned from 2006

In 2006, Floyd Landis - the 'winner' of the Tour who had been feted on the conclusion of the final stage in Paris - was later found to have used a banned performance enhancing drug and stripped of his title. This followed the withdrawal from the Tour of other top riders before the race had even started because of doping allegations.

Earlier the seven times champion Lance Armstrong had been accused of being a drugs cheat (an allegation that he still hotly denies). For the race to recover from these scandals, it was essential that the 2007 event was seen to be clean. But as in 2006, this has not been the case and the then leader Michael Rasmussen was kicked out of the Tour for alleged doping offences and others top riders have suffered the same fate.

The challenge is not to be caught

It is difficult to avoid the conclusion that the main challenge for competitors in the Tour de France is not to win whilst obeying the rules, but to avoid being caught cheating. As the British cyclist Bradley Wiggins put it: 'No-one has faith in who is wearing the yellow jersey - this year's Tour has lost all credibility. It's null and void as far as I am concerned.'

But it was not this year's Tour alone that was a farce - it has been going on for years and, despite the improvements in detection that are now applied, obviously riders still think that they can get away with using drugs to enhance their performances.

So the response to the man from the shadows who says that his chemical concoction will do the trick has clearly not been to show him the door but to seek proof that the substance will not be picked up in the testing.

Why don't the teams get a grip?

That the lure of fame and fortune makes Tour de France competitors try to cheat their way to success is a sad reflection on human nature. No doubt they have some peace of mind from assuring themselves that 'everyone is at it' and by convincing themselves that the only way to win is to copy others - but just not get caught.

What about the teams? Some pretty famous brand names are sponsors of the top teams so why, after the scandals of 2006, did they not seek copper-bottomed assurances that the same would not happen in 2007?

Surely a brand as strong as Audi or Adidas (amongst many others) cannot tolerate the stigma of being linked in the public's perception with these scandals? Can they be convinced that it really won't happen again next year - if not they will surely pull out of any involvement.

The sordid side of sport

There are cheats in all sports and drug cheats in many. Even professional golf, which prides itself on its honour, has been accused (by Gary Player, no less) of having its share of drug abuse.

Hardly an Olympic games goes by without an athlete being found to have taken performance enhancing substances. The noble game of cricket was sullied a few years ago by the revelation that one of its most famous stars, Shane Warne, had used an illegal drug. And baseball is wrestling with the fact that San Francisco Giants batter Barry Bonds, widely accused of the use of steroids, may soon take ownership of its cherished home run record.

But terrible though these abuses are nothing can equal the lying and cheating that has damaged the reputation of the Tour de France for years.

Take a stand, commercial sponsors

The riders will carry on trying to win through drug abuse and the teams will turn a blind eye to the cheating if they think that it won't be detected. That is the inescapable lesson that we must learn from what has been happening in the Tour de France for years.

The governing body of cycling will no doubt wring its hands in shame and declare that they will eradicate drug abuse in their sport - but how many times have we heard that? The solution lies with the commercial sponsors. They must state that their involvement in cycling will be at an end until and unless the sport is once and for all rid of this evil.

The ultimate disaster for the Tour de France would be if the main sources of funding dried up. It's up to the business world to unite and to show some real corporate responsibility by saying that enough is enough - maybe then we can return to the halcyon days when our summers were enhanced, not despoiled, by a glimpse of the Tour de France peloton.