Sarkozy backs Tour as media mourns

By Kerstin Gehmlich

PARIS (Reuters) - French media mourned the Tour de France on Thursday after the expulsion of race leader Michael Rasmussen but President Nicolas Sarkozy said organisers were finally tackling the scourge of doping.

"The death of the Tour," Liberation daily said in a front page headline, adding: "Stop this circus!"

"This cycling procession has transformed itself into a caravan of ridicule," the paper said in an editorial.

"If the organisers really intend to save cycling, they should stop the competition. And decree a pause of several years -- the time to heal these ex-sportsmen who have become drug addicts."

Sarkozy, on a visit to Senegal, said he backed director Christian Prudhomme and Patrice Clerc, president of organisers ASO in the drive to clean up the Tour.

"I support the organisers of the Tour de France because they have the courage to get rid of the cheats," he told reporters.

"Let's stop the hypocrisy, it's been going on for decades and at last there are determined people, Mr Prudhomme and Mr Patrice Clerc. Well I support them," he said.

"Basically, I want to defend the Tour and get rid of the cheats," he said.