SION, Switzerland -- The sport of cycling, once loved by millions of fans, has died as a result of cheating and doping, a Swiss newspaper said Saturday.
"Here rests cycling (1790-2007)," read the death notice in the French-language Le Nouvelliste, published in place of the results from the latest stage of the Tour de France.
Jean-Francois Fournier, the newspaper's chief editor, said the paper chose not to write about Friday's race to highlight the anger over the various doping scandals that have rocked the sport.
The current Tour leader -- Michael Rasmussen -- is at the center of the latest controversy after it was announced Thursday that he had been kicked off the Danish national team after missing two out-of-competition doping tests.
Last year's Tour winner, American rider Floyd Landis, is still fighting to keep his title after testing positive for synthetic testosterone during the race.
"Today, the sport of professional cycling is clinically dead," Fournier said.
But he added that the decision by two German television stations to drop their coverage of the Tour, as well as the possible withdrawal by sponsors Audi and Adidas, provides a last chance to save cycling.
