Armstrong is boss in problem-ridden season

Cycling's 2002 season followed a familiar pattern as Lance Armstrong again proved he was the boss of the Tour de France with his fourth victory in succession and the Giro d'Italia struggled to shake off its drug-tainted image.

Armstrong, nicknamed the boss by the bunch, was in dominant form but his ride to victory in Paris was not without its surprises.

Having won the prologue, the American crashed on stage seven, losing 27 seconds on race leader Igor Gonzalez Galdeano, and was then beaten in a long-distance time trial for the first time in four years by Colombian Santiago Botero.

But Armstrong made amends in the mountains, winning two stages in the Pyrenees and the U.S Postal rider sealed victory by taking the penultimate stage, an individual time trial.

"I like what I do. For me it's a hobby and a job. I'm passionate about cycling. I get a lot of enjoyment out of trying to win the Tour de France," said Armstrong, who recovered from cancer to win his first Tour in 1999.

France's Laurent Jalabert, riding in his final Tour, claimed the king of the mountains jersey, while Robbie McEwen edged out Germany's Erik Zabel to become the first Australian to win the green jersey.

The closest the Tour came to a doping scandal was when French police found performance-enhancing drugs in the car of the wife of Lithuanian Raimondas Rumsas.

Edita Rumsas said the drugs were for her ailing mother. Raimondas, who finished third in the Tour, tested negative for drugs in August. The 30-year-old rider denied that his wife had obtained doping products for him and that he had ever taken anything illegal.

SIMONI CLEARED

Any hopes the Giro d'Italia had of a fresh start after the previous year's doping problems ended when 2000 winner Stefano Garzelli tested positive for the banned diuretic Probenecid.

The Italian, who denied any drug taking, was banned for nine months in July.

Defending champion Gilberto Simoni soon followed Mapei rider Garzelli out of the Giro after a positive test for cocaine.

Simoni was later cleared of taking the drug when the Italian Cycling Federation accepted his defence that it was present in some coca leaf sweets he had eaten.

The doping problems at the Giro prompted Mapei to announce that it was ending its sponsorship of the world's biggest professional cycling team.

"The current situation in cycling, especially after what happened at the Giro d'Italia, has made Mapei decide to stop after 10 years of sponsorship," team manager Aldo Sassi said in June.

Another prominent rider banned for doping this season was 1997 Tour de France winner Jan Ullrich.

He was given a six-month ban in July after testing positive for an amphetamine a month earlier. It capped a dismal year for the German, who also lost his driving licence for a year after a drink-driving incident in May.

Ullrich admitted taking an amphetamine in a nightclub during a "personal crisis". He was recovering from knee surgery at the time and had not ridden since January.

JALABERT RETIRES

France lost one of their most successful riders when Jalabert retired after the world road championships, while Italian Mario Cipollini had a change of heart less than two months after quitting the sport.

The one glaring omission from Jalabert's glittering 14-year career was a Tour de France win -- his best finish was fourth in 1995.

"I may have some regrets about having had the potential for victory on the Tour but it's useless having regrets. I'm proud of what I have achieved," the 33-year-old Jalabert said when announcing his retirement in July.

After starting off the season with wins in the Milan-San Remo Classic, Ghent-Wevelgem and six stages of the Giro, Cipollini shocked the cycling world by announcing his retirement in July after his Acqua and Sapone team were not invited to ride in the Tour.

"The bitterness of not being able to compete to win...together with the sense of delusion my team gets from its sponsors who don't recognise how great a sacrifice I make, has led me to take the drastic decision and give up cycling," the 35-year-old Italian wrote on his website at the time.

But less than two months later Cipollini was back in the saddle.

He returned in stunning style with his first stage victories in September's Tour of Spain, winning three in total, and then outsprinted McEwen and Zabel to lift the world road race championship last weekend.

Saturday's Tour of Lombardy was the last major race of the year and ended with Paolo Bettini of Italy taking the season-long World Cup title.

Johan Museeuw of Belgium was second and Italian Michele Bartoli, who won the Lombardy race, finished third in the overall cup.