Ah, the wages of cheating continue to be paid out…now we hear that Piepoli has been sacked even though he hasn’t turned up a positive test. I would guess that he must’ve admitted something to the team that then brought his career to an end. As for Ricco, he remains too conceited to admit anything and now it looks like they may lose their sponsorship which means those guys might all be out of a job. If I was one of his teammates I’d have a hard time keeping my hands from wrapping around his throat!

Ricco’s mistake was thinking that the organizers didn’t have test for the drug found called CERA, but in a further sign of the sport getting clean the pharmaceutical companies are now working with race organizers to help them detect the products they make. Cycling is the cleanest sport in the world with the worst reputation.

As for today’s stage, The Man from Man did it again. Cavendish won his fourth stage and (team owner) Bob Stapleton is no doubt quivering in ecstasy. Cavendish once again displayed his dominating sprint - a type of performance that hasn’t been since the days of the great Mario Cipolini. I have to say though, this one (finish sprint) was hard because all the lead-outs disintegrated and the sprinters were on their own. Cavendish was deep in the drops mauling it like a psychopath!

Bobke’s Inside Line: It’s a sad commentary on the world when the F-bomb is illegal and the H-Bomb isn’t. I get warned that if I drop an F-Bomb I’ll get thrown out so that keeps me a little worried, but I’ve been on the job for ten years and I haven’t slipped yet. The way I look at it, F-Bombs are better than H-Bombs any day of the week but it’s the F-Bombs that are practically illegal. F-Bombs won’t end the world, but H-Bombs will!