The organizer of the Giro d’Italia, Angelo Zomegnan, has asked the UCI president, Pat McQuaid, for a little help. With the Giro’s start a mere three days away, Zomegnan still does not have a complete list of the riders implicated in Operacion Puerto. Without the list, he can’t be sure that the riders who are taking part in this year’s Giro are “clean.”

Zomegnan “expressed his concerns that the UCI was not being considerate to the Giro’s needs, including the secondary companies that help support the three week tour.” But it seems to me that until every bag of blood found in Spain last year is matched to a rider, there won’t even be a complete list. And are we really prepared to have mass DNA tests in the start town’s race village on Friday night? I didn’t think so.

Let’s just try, for a moment, to imagine what this racing season might have been like if the Puerto case had been fully dealt with when it originally reared its ugly head…