Maybe this is a simplistic view, but if you ask me, I think every rider should be tested at every race, period. It’s not a new idea, and it’s been argued that testing every rider would be prohibitively expensive, that it’s a logistical nightmare, and that the dopers are always using something that’s not being tested for.

My response is, as a sport, we can’t afford not to test. Every pre-race favorite for last year’s Tour was a non-starter, thanks to the doping allegations from Spain’s Operation Puerto. That’s not just a serious black eye for the sport, that’s a concussion. And just as Floyd’s incredible comeback ride lifted cycling above that sorry mess, Landis comes back with a positive dope test. This isn’t something the sport can absorb, not in the eyes of the public.

It’s true that the good dopers are often ahead of the dope controls. It was years before we had an effective test for EPO, and its use in the pro ranks was pretty well known. But that doesn’t mean it’s okay for the sport to just lie down and take it. A car window can be easily smashed with a brick, but that doesn’t stop you from locking the doors and arming the alarm when you park at night.

And while the logistics of testing hundreds of riders might be daunting, the powers that be would find a way to solve that problem if they had sufficient motivation. The problem is, neither the UCI — cycling’s global sanctioning body — nor the Tour de France seem motivated enough. And that’s where my proposal comes in.

Slide show 2006 Tour de France Landis finishes first in race that had heroics, crashes and a drug scandal that rocked the race even before it began.

The sponsors can fix this. Cycling draws millions in sponsorship dollars. Coca-Cola and Credit Lyonnais alone pay hundreds of millions for Tour sponsorship. If key sponsors like these were to come to the UCI and Tour de France and say their sponsorship was conditional, that every rider had to be tested at every race, the powers that be would find a way to make that happen. It would only take a few key sponsors to get on the bandwagon for this to attain critical mass. And if they set a deadline — say the 2008 season — it would not only allow the UCI time to figure out the logistics, but it would give every rider time to clean up his act.

I’d say it’s about time.