Looks like you can move the Tour de France into the ugly column.

I'd mentioned yesterday that the race leader, Michael Rasmussen, was under a cloud for not being available during a couple of his out of competition drug test days. He said he was in Mexico, and couldn't re-file the paperwork about his whereabouts in time.

Which is all well and good, until another rider sees you bumming around Rome when you were supposed to be on another continent. His team's sponsor, not surprising in the current climate, didn't like that he'd lied to them about something related to doping control, and pulled him out of the race. Deadspin had a good comparison when they noted it'd be like Barry Bonds getting whacked with a drug suspension while rounding the bases.

I didn't watch last night's stage, taking the night off after the Vinokourov affair. Now, I don't know if I'll even bother to tune back in.

Which leads me to this thought: how would the US pro sports leagues look if they had the same doping controls as cycling?

Good: Next year will see some form of competition in car insurance rates in Massachusetts. Right now we're the only state in the Union where regulators fix rates, and our last stab at de-regulation in the 1970s didn't go so well (I have very vague memories of this, more from the news than anything with my family).

So, finally, I may be able to get car insurance from a caveman, Cockney lizard or a pink-haired secret agent/robot football player/baseball fan. Given how we're getting jerked around by our current carrier, I'll happily put my fate in the hands (paws?) of one of these folks.

Bad: More doping allegations at the Tour de France, most notably Alexander Vinokourov's reported positive test for homologous transfusions, which led his entire team to drop out. On top of that, race leader Michael Rasmussen missed a couple of test dates outside of racing, which he blames on the process required to notify the sport's governing body of changes to his itinerary (to be fair, it's a little mind-boggling that riders can't make changes on-line somehow).

Cycling is dependent on sponsor money, and doping makes it that much harder to get new ones. Tyler Hamilton's suspension killed a good Phonak team that was transitioning to a new sponsor, and with deals soon to run out with T-Mobile and Discovery, more high-level names getting busted won't help keep current sponsors or find new ones. On the positive side, this may make some room for folks like Team Slipstream and others who are trying to clean things up.

Though I'm concerned about a cycling team powered by Mexican food. Don't get behind their riders in the peleton.

Ugly - this whole Michael Vick thing. Ugh.