Festina Affair - Time Line - 1998 Tour de France

1998 Tour De France

July 8, 1998: Willy Voet, Belgian soigneur of the Festina team and personal carer of Richard Virenque was stopped by customs officers at the Belgian-French border close to Neuville-en-Ferrain near Lille in Northern France. Officers discovered several hundred grams and capsules of anabolic steroids, Erythropoietin (EPO), syringes and other doping products. Voet was taken into police custody. Festina offices were searched in the evening in Lyon and other suspect products were seized. One of the substances that was found that would later be discussed was perfluorocarbon which was said to be an artificial carrier of oxygen. The substance was very dangerous to take and is suspected to have caused the near fatal collapse of Swiss rider Mauro Gianetti during the 1997 Tour de Romandie.

July 10, 1998: Bruno Roussel, directeur sportif of Festina, declared a day before the start of the Tour in Dublin that he had nothing to do with the drugs find. He claimed that Voet was not supposed to be with the team for the Tour. Meanwhile a judicial inquiry into the importation and illegal circulation of contraband items began in France. It was announced that Voet would be imprisoned in Loos for two weeks.

July 11, 1998: French police state that the car contained 250 bottles of EPO (originating from three labs in Germany and Switzerland), plus 400 bottles and ampules of various products. Voet is alleged to have driven from Lyon, France via Switzerland to Germany and from there to Belgium. In the Festina headquarters the police allege that they found a document with systematic drug programmes for the riders of Festina. As the race began in Dublin, it was announced that the Festina riders Richard Virenque, Alex Zülle and Laurent Dufaux would face questioning when they returned to France.

July 14, 1998: Gérard Gremion, a doctor from Switzerland said in the French newspaper, France-Soir, that 99% of the peloton used doping. Roussel and Festina team doctor Eric Rijckaert continued to deny doping on the team.

July 15, 1998: Roussel and Rijckaert are taken into custody in Cholet. The Festina hotel was searched by 8 gendarmes.

July 16, 1998: Roussel lost his licence as a manager of a cycling team from the UCI but the Festina team appeared to be able to continue in the race due to Miguel Moreno together with Michael Gros taking it over. Virenque, Dufaux and Brochard called a press conference before the stage and assured that the team would not withdraw from the race.

July 17, 1998: Roussel admitted to systematic doping on the team. In the late evening, Tour de France race directeur Jean-Marie Leblanc expelled the Festina team from the Tour; they did not start the seventh stage the following day (July 18).

July 18, 1998: Virenque left the Tour in tears.

July 19, 1998: French daily Aujourd’hui reported that on March 4, 1998 police found 104 ampules of EPO in a vehicle of the TVM team. This occurred following a race (GP Valencia) during a routine customs check close to Reims in North-East France. Team mechanics were driving the vehicle at the time. The judicial authorities did not make the case a priority. Meanwhile the new Festina assistant manager Michael Gros alleged that Festina did what every team was doing.

July 21, 1998: The lawyer of Rijckaert alleged that his client had told that there was a special doping fund with the Festina team. This fund was used to procure doping products and had about 60.000 euro (at the time described in francs). A former TVM rider, Alain van den Bosche, admitted to taking EPO while on the team.

July 23, 1998: Nine riders and three officials from Festina are taken into police custody. Famously Christophe Bassons was not taken into custody and he was the only member of the team not implicated in the doping. In Pamiers, Cees Priem the manager of the TVM team and Andrei Michailov, the TVM team doctor, are taken into custody and detained overnight. Four other TVM officials including directeur sportif Hendrik Redant are also interrogated but are later released. Priem and Michailov were arrested after the French police raided the Hotel de la Rocade in Palmiers, the hotel that the team was staying in. Police found drug evidence in a suitcase and a rubbish bin in TVM’s hotel room in Toulouse and Metz.

Eric van de Sijpe, a Belgian judge, ordered a search of the offices of the Festina doctor (who lived in Belgium) whereby the police obtained computer files proving the riders were using EPO. Festina riders (Richard Virenque, Pascal Hervé, Didier Rous, Alex Zülle, Armin Meier and Laurent Dufaux) are questioned in Lyon and held in police custody. Police announce that they will also question the Rabobank and Casino teams. The nine Festina riders were escorted to a hospital and obligated to undergo extensive tests and sample giving such as blood, hair and urine samples.

The television crew of France 2 found needles with the remains of banned substances in the hotel room of the Asics team (who were also riding the Tour). The syringes allegedly had the initials of the riders of the team.

July 24, 1998: Priem and Michailov are transferred to Foix. The nine riders from Festina are let free. Five of them (Zülle, Dufaux, Moreau, Brochard en Meier) have admitted to doping. Virenque claims that he is clean. Hervé also maintains he is innocent. An investigation into TVM begins. Stage 12 is interrupted for two hours by riders.

Interim Festina manager Moreno is also released on bail while former manager Roussel, masseur Voet and doctor Rijckaert are held. The revelations of Meier provoked the riders strike in the stage. A second investigation is launched into the drugs find of the TVM team during the Tour. Voet and Roussel explain how doping was organised on the team and that the other teams are involved in smuggling. Alex Zülle also admits to doping but claims that he needed to do so to satisfy his sponsors. Zülle claims that he was deprived of his spectacles during the police interview. Dufaux admitted to doping in police custody because the evidence proving that he was doping was overpowering, he claimed.

July 27, 1998:: The police say that the Festina affair and the TVM affair are not connected. Priem and Michailov are still held in custody. The President of the International Olympic Committee Juan Antonio Samaranch called for performance enhancing drugs to be legalised. His call was supported by two cycling teams, Banesto and Team ONCE. Cees Priem and Alexandrei Mikhailov are taken by car from Foix to Reims and are still detained. Neil Stephens, a Festina rider at the Tour, admits taking performance enhancing drugs but claims that he thought the EPO injections were vitamin C and E supplements.

July 28, 1998: Two former riders of Festina, Gilles Bouvard and Emmanuel Magnien, confess to doping. Roussel is released on bail. TVM are met by the police in Albertville; six TVM riders including sprinter Jeroen Blijlevens, Bart Voskamp, Servais Knaven and Steven de Jongh are taken in the night to the hospital where they give blood, hair and urine samples. TVM Soigneur Jan Moors is arrested. Police also take three cases, a sports bag and a dustbin from the team. Afterwards the rest of the team are taken into custody and escorted to the hospital for extensive drug tests.

July 29, 1998: The Tour peloton conducted an industrial dispute by cycling very slowly. The champion of France, Laurent Jalabert pulled out first followed by the rest of his team, Team ONCE. The Spanish team Banesto and the Italian team Risco Scotti left at the feeding zone. The peloton stopped a second time and threatened a mass withdrawal against the treatment of the Tour riders as criminals. At a slow tempo, the peloton walked to Aix-les-Bains and the stage was cancelled. In the afternoon there was a raid on Team ONCE, Team Polti, La Française des Jeux, Lotto and Casino. Team managers Marc Madiot (La Française des Jeux), Vincent Lavenu (Casino) and the rider Rodolfo Massi (Casino) are arrested. It was also announced that Coca-Cola, a major sponsor of the Tour de France, decided to withdraw from sponsoring the race.

July 30, 1998: Kelme and Vitalicio Seguros pull out of the Tour before the 18th stage. TVM rider Jeroen Blijlevens pulls out near the border with Switzerland. Rodolfo Massi, leader of the Mountains classification, was not able to start the stage as he was still being held in police custody. The truck of the Casino team was seized by police. The media reports that the drugs found in Voet’s car were destined to be shared by three other teams – Big Mat, La Française des Jeux and Casino. These teams were allegedly mentioned by Festina riders during their confessions.

July 31, 1998: Blijlevens arrived back in the Netherlands and was joined by the rest of the TVM team who did not start the 19th stage. Massi and Terrados are taken from Chambéry to Lille where investigating judge Patrick Keil would interrogate them. Massi was suspected to be involved in the Festina drugs network and in smuggling of drugs from Italy to France. Massi was allegedly known in the peloton as the little chemist. At this stage there are fewer than one hundred riders in the race compared to the 189 riders that started the race.

August 1, 1998: Massi is charged with inciting and facilitating the use of doping.

August 3, 1998: Cees Priem, Andrej Michailov and Jan Moors are still held in prison. TVM riders have to present themselves in Reims. After several hours of questioning they are released. TVM masseur Johannes Moors is jailed for suspicion of possessing drugs and breaches of French customs laws. Police find banned substances in the hotel of Team ONCE. Team doctor Terrados alleges that these substances were used by support staff.

August 4, 1998: Jean-Marie Leblanc acknowledges that the increasing speed of the peloton in the Tour was due to the increasing use of doping in the peloton.

August 5, 1998: The media contains many reports of drug finds along the route of the Tour – by farmers or by police in the hotels used by teams – for example a hotel in Voreppe used by GAN, Casino, Saeco and Kelme.

August 10, 1998: Cantina Tollo and La Française des Jeux vehicles are searched by French customs officials.