Strange unsettling sort of week

Strange, unsettling sort of week. Clearly, the Tour de France organisers decided against visiting the Blarney Stone on their brief Irish visit because the event's fortunes have deteriorated sharply since.

The spectre of doping has eclipsed and tainted the savage feats of endurance and skill which, for decades, have seen the French line the arid roads and remote mountainous routes.

The most poignant image of this year's tour will be that of Laurent Jalabert initiating an sit-in as the cyclists attempted to communicate their collective disgust at the daily pillorying of their efforts.

Jan Ullrich, who leaned against his saddle throughout Friday morning's protest, declared he would gladly donate his tour earnings if more stringent doping guidelines were enforced.

Scandal or not, Ullrich wanted to race. Naturally, the past stars weighed in behind the current aspirants. Bernard Hinault complained that the French papers were devoting five pages to the Tour - four and a half of those to the doping turmoil.

"The cyclists are pedalling in the saddle for six hours a day and all that is talked about is the doping," echoed Stephen Roche. But throughout the week things looked the same as ever.

The peloton glided through rustic, postcard settings as blurred and glamorous as ever. The people still waved and carried flags. Little had changed.

Meanwhile, another doping story seemed set to arrive at some sort of conclusion elsewhere. On Friday, RTE news brought us pictures from Lausanne and an anonymous, modern hotel where Michelle de Bruin's future in swimming was being debated upon.

Fleeting shots of Michelle in a beige suit. Seems like forever since we watched her swim. Virtually since the day the swimmer collected her third Olympic medal there had been whisperings that this hour would come.

The strangest aspect was that it seemed so empty. Stripped off the 1996 images - the famous poolside waves, Janet Evans' tears, those press conferences - the whole thing seemed devoid of emotion, as if the outcome, however it turned out, didn't matter now.

And in truth it probably doesn't to most of us. But the De Bruin hearing did provoke a study of the presence of drugs in the Irish sporting arena. On Primetime, Eugene McGee suggested that banned substances might even have breached the amateur fold of the GAA, while a report highlighted the history of systematic substance abuse which has long blighted athletics and swimming.

"Was the joy gone from sport?," they wondered. Even the nastiness which preceded the Munster senior hurling final replay - did that point to the fact that the need to win has subsumed all else? Gary O'Toole quietly painted the bottom line. "Sports is like a business. People will cheat to win."

Against this, it was difficult to relax watching the weekend's athletics in Birmingham. Diane Modahl, who successfully cleared her name after alleged substance abuse, strode into an unassailable lead on the final turn into the home straight.

Gargantuan hammer throwers. The search, via the 100 metres, for a new Linford Christie. The old Linford showed up to pass judgement on his possible heirs. He felt they needed to push a bit more. Most of the sprinters arrived home around the 10.2 seconds mark.

"They need to be 10.1 because 10.2 is going to get you nowhere," advised Linford. Bottom line. And yet, this week held the unforgettable also. As so often, Irish soccer was the medium. So crazily fantastic was the sight of Shelbourne sticking Rangers for three unanswered goals that you would defy anyone to produce a substance which might produce a similar sensation.

"It'll be like something out of the X-Files if they win this," gasped Eurosport's man seconds before Morley calmly chipped home Shelbourne's third. Maybe if they hadn't conceded a penalty so soon they might have held on. But Rangers' late recovery only served to highlight the magnitude of the Irish team's performance. So incredible was that match that it overshadowed an even more astonishing result in Celtic Park where St Patrick's Athletic held Celtic to a 0-0 draw.

The Scottish League champions were soundly booed. Both results probably say more about the innate skill levels existent in the Irish game rather than depicting the Scottish game in a derisory light. But, it did make you wonder at the justification of the bloated salaries which British professionals enjoy each week.

And in Cyprus, the purer face of sport shone brightly as well. Brian Kerr has an inherent, gruff sort of grace and, in addition to winning manager of the year, he will also probably take sports quote of the year for his playful dismissal of German coach Rainer Bonhoff's international career.

Last night, we tuned in at tea-time to watch his under-18s line out in the European final against Germany, same as we watched Michelle Smith two summers ago and Stephen Roche in the French mountains 11 years ago. And although the stage was smaller last night, the occasion, perhaps, deserved more heartfelt celebration.