Here we go again. I thought (or hoped) we could make it through a Tour de France without doping allegations. However, one day after Alexandre Vinokourov won the fifteen stage of the Tour, we learned he allegedly tested positive for a banned blood transfusion.

The Kazakh rider, a one-time favorite to win cycling's premier event, was tested after his victory in the 13th stage time trial on Saturday.

"Vino has tested positive having to do with a blood transfusion and the team is leaving the Tour," team spokeswoman Corinne Druey said, using the rider's nickname.

Astana team manager Marc Biver said Vinokourov was sent home. His backup B-sample test results are expected by the end of the week.

"Alexandre denies having manipulated his blood," Biver said, adding that the rider believes that "blood anomalies in his body" may have resulted from a crash he was involved in last week.

About 30 police officers, some in plain clothes, descended on Astana's La Palmeraie hotel in Pau and sealed it off, preventing more members of the team from leaving.

The case brought back memories of some of cycling's darkest days. In 1998, police raids turned up a stash of performance-enhancing drugs in a Festina team car, plunging the Tour in crisis.

Race director Christian Prudhomme said the case showed that cycling's drug-testing system doesn't work.

"It's an absolute failure of the system," he said. "It is a system which does not defend the biggest race in the world. This is a system which can't last."

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