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The Tour de France has had a splendid start. German rider Stefan Schumacher snatched the first time trial away from the favourites. Mark Cavendish of Britain has emerged as the dominant sprinter in cycling, with two stage wins, and he's only 22.
And Australia's Cadel Evans turned in the performance of a lifetime, Monday, the day after he crashed at 60 km/h, hitting the ground so hard he cracked his helmet. Pushing past his pain and his competitors in the first really tough test in the Pyrenees, Mr. Evans took the leader's yellow jersey - bandages, road rash and all. On the podium, he was in tears.
Amazing, and all three riders may even be clean.
Last year, professional cycling reached its nadir. Danish rider Michael Rasmussen, who was leading the tour and seemed set to win it, was fired by his own team on suspicion of doping. Another favourite, Alexandre Vinokourov of Kazakhstan, was expelled after a positive drug test.
In fact, few of the biggest names in cycling are even cycling. Ivan Basso, Iban Mayo and Jan Ullrich have all been banned after being caught doping. American Floyd Landis, the 2006 winner, was stripped of the maillot jaune after he failed a dope test.
And last year's winner, Alberto Contador, and third place finisher, Levi Leipheimer, aren't in this year's race, because they joined Team Astana, which racing officials have punished for past sins by not letting it compete, despite new management.
That's how far they're prepared to go, to save the tour.
Cyclers doped. Everyone knew it. Officials ignored the problem, or fought with each other over what to do about it.
Eventually, fans stopped believing. An amazing attack on the Alps? Wonder what he took that morning. A come-from-behind sprint to the finish? His team doctor must be better than the other doctors.
After last year's "tour de farce," officials and team managers realized the sport was at risk of collapse, as sponsors and broadcasters threatened to withdraw. Out-of-competition drug tests have greatly increased and officials created "biological passports" that monitor riders throughout the season.
Some teams, including the U.S. team Garmin-Chipotle and Team Columbia, have added internal controls. The sponsors demand no less.
Even so, there is still doping. A week into the tour, veteran rider Manuel Beltran of Spain was bounced after failing a urine test.
"This is no way going to be the last positive test we're going to have," former rider David Millar told reporters. "As long as there are doping controls, there will be positives. At least this shows the controls are working." The Scottish rider was banned for two years in 2004 for doping, and has returned to the sport with a messianic determination to help clean it up.
Mr. Beltran is the fourth rider from Lance Armstrong's old team to test positive, further raising doubts about Mr. Armstrong's unparalleled seven consecutive tour wins.
Almost all of Mr. Armstrong's major competitors has been caught doping. Was he really able to beat them with nothing but a better body?
Mr. Armstrong swears he never doped. You really want to believe him.
Cycling is a heroic sport. The impossibly thin, impossibly strong young men of the tour subject themselves to more than 3,000 km of agony, with the threat of scraped flesh or broken bones present every second.
There will always be a veteran desperate for one more year on the tour who decides to dope, or some cocky kid who figures he'll never get caught. The goal must be to make them the exception, and to catch them.
Cadel Evans told reporters how it felt, racing a stage after a fall: "It was the descents that hurt the most," he said. "Every swollen part of my body was bouncing in the bag."
He earned that yellow jersey. We hope.
