Hard to digestif from Paris

Slim pickings from Europe. French, Belgian, Italian online newspapers and agencies are mainly repeating the AP story--the bare-bones, not as much by way of comment as appears, for example, in the ESPN report. (Time of day probably accounts for it. The story broke here at about 8:30 p.m. As I file this it's 10:45 p.m. There'll no doubt be more overnight.)

One quote not appearing in the American reports I've seen is this quote from Christian Prudhomme, reported in l'Equipe (from Agence France Presse):

Christian Prudhomme, Tour director, expressed his relief regarding this decision, even if it came, for him, too slowly. "We have waited a long time, too long. For our part, we said from the beginning we had total confidence in the French lab at Châtenay-Malabry [ed note: which conducted the analyses]. Now it is sworn and confirmed that Landis cheated. As far as the Tour de France is concerned, Landis was no longer the winner after the B test. The verdict of the American arbitrators just confirms what we knew. He cheated; he is punished. Following our rules, the second place finisher (Oscar Pereiro) will be awarded first place," Prudhomme confided.