Marco Pantini descended the final mountain stage of Wednesday's leg of the Tour de France at over 100 kilometres per hour. As seems to be the norm these days, particularly in teams such as Festina and TVM, professional cyclists put winning before their health. Pantini didn't care too much for wearing a head protector, preferring instead a fetching cloth head-wrap, which coordinated nicely with his goatee beard and earring. It was the image of "The Pirate" in full flight, no doubt fulfilling many of his sponsorship obligations, doing a bomb through the mist and wet roads which characterised the top part of this particular downhill slalom.

If Chris Boardman had not been wearing a helmet on the Cork stage of the Tour, he might have died. When cycling finally steps out of the shadow of dope scandals, the next step will be to enforce the use of helmets. More riders will, however, have to die first - the reason they originally began to get nervous about doping.