We were coming up on a bit of a sporting harmonic convergence, as the World Cup quarterfinals start today, and the Tour de France starts tomorrow. But while the top footballers in the world get back into the swing of things after a couple of days off, the Tour will miss at least two of its top contenders thanks to a new doping scandal.

Jan Ullrich and Ivan Basso, the other two riders on the podium with Lance Armstrong last July, were suspended by their teams based on a Spanish-led investigation that has implicated almost 60 riders in a blood doping scheme. One team has already been dropped from the race, while another - featuring Alexandre Vinokourov, another top contender (but not implicated) - is pretty heavily implicated, but will still race.

This has shades of the 1998 Festina scandal, when a team-wide doping bust nearly stopped the Tour cold. The race will still go on this time, but with none of the podium finishers from last year competing, it's not going to feel right.

As bad as this news is, it does benefit the top Americans - Floyd Landis, George Hincapie, and Levi Leipheimer - none of whom were implicated. Let the conspiracy theories commence.