Prudhomme's pain. No verdict on Contador before Tour.

Do you feel the Frenchman's pain?

Sacre freakin' bleu, Tour de France boss Christian Prudhomme wants a verdict on Alberto Contador before his Grand Boucle. He's frustrated, disgusted and annoyed and worse, he already knows he's screwed.

Everybody with a calendar can see the Court of Arbitration in Sport won't have a ruling until after the Tour de France starts on July 2nd. That gives him a Floyd Landis-all-over-again feeling, like somebody is force feeding him corn to use his liver for foie gras.

"CAS is sport's highest jurisdiction. We do not want a response but THE response - we have waited too long,' said Prudhomme. Hey, we've all waited too long so get in line, Christian. Twisted Spoke is still ticked off about waiting four years before Alejandro Valverde was sanctioned.

You have to feel for Prudhomme: he runs the biggest, most prestigious and beautiful grand tour and he still has no idea who won the last one. The even deeper merde is that he has to make the call on Contador himself -- either let him ride with the dark cloud over Pistolero's head or take a hard line and tell the Spaniard to stay away until the judges rule.

Monsieur Prudhomme doesn't want to be forced into that position and he doesn't want to make that call. And guess what? He shouldn't have to make be in that situation. It's been about eight months since Contador tested positive for traces of clenbuterol. It will be almost a year by the Grand Depart.

Imagine you're the guy in charge of promoting the Superbowl or the World Series or World Cup of soccer but you can't say after almost a year who won the last edition. Not only that, nobody in charge can give you a definitive answer on when you'll know other than "too late to matter." You'd be irritated, frustrated and disgusted. You'd be Christian Prudhomme.

And don't think Prudhomme and ASO aren't having a deep conversation with Jonathan Vaughters about how a UCI replacement organization might do a better job with issues like this. He's listening very carefully because like everyone else in the sport, he's had just about enough. Trop de trop.