The topic of the day is moral ambiguity.

      Yes, I’m writing about France, which brings us the Tour de France.

      The race that lives up my definition of why it’s worth watching professional athletes on TV – they are doing things most people never could. Like ride up a mountain where I’d struggle to walk my bike, and do it way faster than I can ride on a flat road.

      Oh, yes there is that other annual tradition, the doping scandals. This year it resulted in 3 riders kicked out of the race so far, and there’s always the chance that more could follow, even after it wraps up this weekend.

     It’s enough to make myself, and a lot of other people, wonder if the whole thing is absolutely hinky. It’s been enough to drive away many of the biggest sponsors. But I’m over that.

     To me the question isn't is there cheating?, it's what are they doing to get rid of it?

      After doping scandals going back a decade, the tour is paying a high price to kick out stars who have used banned substances to up their red blood count for a punishing trip.

      With the Olympics coming up, lots of sports fans will have to deal with the reality that the old baseball maxim: if you ain’t cheating you ain’t trying,” is a common enough credo in sport, and life.

     The number of cheaters kicked out of the race, which had weeded out quite a few contenders even before the start, shows the powerful urge to get an edge.

     Riders do seem almost demonically driven, which is part of the appeal to me. Like the guy who crashed into a sign and was shown on this You Tube clip flying over the handlebars as his bike snapped in half. And then he got on another bike and finished that day, a feat that now rates him a small place in Wikipedia.

     The race will come down to a time trial Saturday where the leader, Carlos Sastre will try to hold off contenders like Australian Cadel Evans. Sastre said he expected, “the usual pain in my legs.”

     I’m more interested in Evans’ contribution to the doping debate. He was asked in a New York Times story about third rider kicked out of the tour, Riccardo Ricco, why people should believe anyone in cycling is clean. He first pointed out that cheating is part of life:

 “The cheats are being caught and the sport is being cleaned up in a serious, fair and transparent way, which is a lot more than I can say for a lot of other professions in the world, Our sport is trying to do the right thing, and we’re being crucified for it. What are they supposed to do, have a free-for-all like some sports that don’t have testing at all?” 

     That comment raises a good question: do fans want clean racing or just no talk about cheating? For years there was no steroid problem in baseball, though there was plenty of accusations, because there was virtually no testing. Last winter it was a problem when a report came out same there was cheating, but that's now forgotten in the middle of some hot pennant races.

     This sort of dilemma is hardly unique to sport. As long as corrupt political regimes control huge oil reserves, there’s going to be the same quandary for the oil business — some competitor is likely to do what it takes to get an edge. And the public misdeeds of a few oil companies lead to assumptions that everyone is dirty. Recently a person in the oil business turned that around by asking me, based on my time in the news business, why don't papers prevent some people who making up things to sensationalize stories. All I could say was: they do try hard to keep that stuff out.

      But as Evans pointed out, trying hard to reform a sport has a way of making everyone look dirty. But it is the right thing to do. So on Saturday morning I’ll have no qualms about those crazy fools riding way too fast on what are likely to be rain-slicked roads. It’s what I do in July.

    So am I just an apologist for sport that gives me some cool scenery and a Nascar-like fascintation for crashes?