'It's getting bizarre now!' – How the Festina Affair unfolded

The Festina Scandal (Image credit: Getty Images)

This year, Cyclingnews celebrates its 25th anniversary, and to mark such an important milestone, the editorial team will be publishing 25 pieces of work that look back at the sport over the last quarter of a century.

When Willy Voet was arrested on the Franco-Belgian border, sparking what would become the biggest drugs scandal in cycling’s history, Cyclingnews was barely three years old. Readers were still connecting to the site via dial-up internet and receiving their news in daily bulletins.

Willy Voet, soigneur for Festina and the personal carer for team leader Richard Virenque, was stopped in his Festina Tour car last Thursday close to Neuville-in-Férain, near Lille in northern France. The customs officers discovered a few hundreds of grams and capsules of anabolic steroids, as well as EPO, and other doping products and syringes. Voet, has been the personal soigneur to Richard Virenque since the days of RMO. He was detained in police custody in Lille.

My partner in cyclingnews.com, Hans just rang me from the Netherlands (23.20 Friday Dutch time) to tell me that Festina have been thrown out of the Tour de France. They have now admitted to systematic drug use under the direction of their doctors. All the top officials are involved. They have allegedly said that it was safer to do it under the direction of the medical staff rather than leave it to the riders. Comprehensive cheating no less.

Richard Virenque, Laurent Dufaux, and Laurent Brochard, called for a press conference, before the start of the Cholet stage to assure everyone that the team would not withdraw from the Tour, even if their sport director remains detained and now without a license. Virenque was the first to talk and said that he spoke in the "name of all the riders" and assured that they were going to "give their maximum to show that they are not related to this matter".

[...] Noted Dutch TV cycling journalist Mart Smeet commented afterwards: "The story came piece by piece. Cees Priem had to often do retakes on his words because he didn't have a clear story. He told us his team is completely innocent and he will talk with Leblanc tonight. But I think there can be no consequences in this Tour for the TVM team because this case is from March and has nothing to do with the Tour de France." Oh yeh! […]

July 20’s news contained a series of minor news and race results, with the only Festina-related content coming in the form of transcripts from Australian television interviews with former pro Phil Anderson, sprinter Robbie McEwen, and Stuart O’Grady, who wore the yellow jersey early in the Tour. All are asked about Festina, although mostly at the end of the interviews. While Anderson notes the news is ‘overshadowing’ the race and the achievements of O’Grady, it’s interesting to note that O’Grady and McEwen themselves play down the significance of the matter.

As French police began questioning cyclists from the disgraced Festina team Thursday, the doping scandal overshadowing the Tour de France grew still further when investigators summoned officials from the TVM team. The UCI has now asked Dutch Cycling Federation officials to do their own investigation into the incident and also the Tour de France organisation are now threatening to kick TVM out of the race.

The riders initially refused to ride Stage 12 because they claimed that there was too much emphasis on drugs and not enough on the racing. They appointed Laurent Jalabert as their spokesperson and he told the Tour radio service that: "We are fed up with being treated like cattle. So we are going to behave like cattle. The sport is no longer interesting to anyone. We won't cycle and that's the end of it."

Yellow jersey holder Jan Ullrich gave an extended press interview after Stage 12 yesterday and called for tighter drug controls. He also said that he would donate his winnings to fight the drugs problems. In his interview he said: "The events of the past few days have made me very sad. You look forward for your whole life to wearing the yellow jersey and now you can't even enjoy it. The riders want tougher controls. I would even contribute all the money that I win here to ensure that there are more controls. We're working like crazy out there and then something like this happens and all anybody talks about is doping."

The latest 'drugs scandal update' sees an update on the TVM investigations, 1996 Tour champion Bjarne Riis insisting he never doped, plus a discussion on whether performance-enhancing drugs should be legalised - backed by Spanish teams ONCE and Banesto. The bulletin also publishes the full editorial in which Le Monde calls for the race to be called off. However, the major story, especially for an Australian-run site, was to come further down...

That's the subhead that accompanies the day's third update. Naturally, it's all about the explosive scenes outside the TVM hotel. The report starts with a blow-by-blow account of how the events unfolded, including details of the riders being detained in hospital to undergo tests until nearly midnight, with doubts about whether they could start the following stage 18. The President of the Dutch Federation complains of 'inhumane treatment' as the French authorities are accused of a 'witch hunt' in retaliation for a French team being caught red-handed.

Le Monde is highly critical of the riders, reflecting its right-wing ideology. It doesn't for one minute think about the pressures that the capitalist sponsors put on riders who are still largely from working class backgrounds. It doesn't see that this is a worker-capital issue. Instead it blames the riders who are seen as breaking the rules of the sport, and the laws of the land. Who appear to be resentful of legal intervention by police into their criminal activities and their contempt for the traditions of the sport.

The aftermath

Patrick is a freelance sports writer and editor. He’s an NCTJ-accredited journalist with a bachelor’s degree in modern languages (French and Spanish). Patrick worked full-time at Cyclingnews for eight years between 2015 and 2023, latterly as Deputy Editor.