That cuts the peleton by 22 riders and puts into doubt many of this years races. As today's Le Figaro puts it "Le cyclisme ne peut se permettre la moindre mansuétude." (no mercy)
Mind you this really opens the field for Floyd Landis, Levi Leipheimer,and George Hincapie.
Yeah, the doping scandal aside (if that is possible), it really opens up the field, and creates an interesting wide open race.