Doping scandals affect racing scene

Two years after Lance Armstrong climbed off his bike, cycling has a mess on its hands. Positive tests, doping allegations - nobody, not even Armstrong, has been immune. The Tour de France, cycling's premier event, is less than two months away, and we still don't know who won last year.

That's because 2006 Tour winner Floyd Landis is huddled with his attorneys in a Malibu courtroom trying to prove his innocence on doping charges. . . .

"We're taking the hit. But because of taking the hit, it's actually being cleaned out," said Jonathan Vaughters, director and CEO of Team Slipstream, a young, U.S.-based professional road racing team.

"In the overall tilt of things, I don't see it as a bad thing." . . .

"I have heard, anecdotally, that people are bummed about (the scandals)," said Carry Porter, spokeswoman for the Cascade Bicycle Club in Seattle, the largest recreational cycling club in the United States.

"On the larger scale, people still want to know who's racing and who's going to be fun to watch. But they might take people's successes with a grain of salt."