The Festina affair was a series of doping scandals within the sport of professional cycling that occurred during and after the 1998 Tour de France.
The affair began when a large haul of doping products was found in a support car belonging to the Festina cycling team just before the start of the race.
On July 8, 1998, Festina soigneur Willy Voet was stopped by customs officers at the French-Belgian border close to Neuville-en-Ferrain, near the city of Lille.
Officers discovered several hundred grams and capsules of anabolic steroids, erythropoietin (EPO), syringes, and other doping products.
[10] However, the following day, French police announced that on top of the contraband items found in Voet's car, a document was discovered at Festina's headquarters which detailed systematic drug programmes for the team's riders.
[15] Nine riders and three officials from Festina were taken into police custody on July 23; of the entire team, only Christophe Bassons was not arrested nor implicated in doping.
[16] Eric van de Sijpe, a Belgian judge, ordered a search of Rijckaert's office, whereby the police obtained computer files proving the riders were using EPO.
Virenque, Dufaux, Pascal Hervé, Didier Rous, Alex Zülle, and Armin Meier were questioned in Lyon and held in police custody.
[17] All nine of the implicated riders were escorted to a hospital and made to undergo extensive tests and give blood, hair and urine samples.
[18] Upon release the following day, five Festina riders (Zülle, Dufaux, Moreau, Brochard and Meier) admitted to doping while Virenque and Hervé maintained their innocence.
Zülle claimed that he needed to engage in doping to satisfy Festina's corporate sponsors, while Dufaux stated that he confessed due to overwhelming evidence collected by police.
[19] On July 27, Festina rider Neil Stephens admitted taking performance-enhancing drugs but claimed that he thought the EPO injections were legal supplements.
[5] On July 19, 1998, the day after Festina left the Tour, the French daily Aujourd’hui reported that police had found 104 ampules of EPO in a vehicle belonging to the TVM team during a routine customs check close to Reims in northeast France.
Police found drug evidence in a suitcase and a rubbish bin in TVM's hotel rooms in Toulouse and Metz.
Banesto and Team ONCE expressed support for a statement by International Olympic Committee president Juan Antonio Samaranch that performance-enhancing drugs should be legalized.
[27] In Reims, TVM riders submitted to several hours of questioning, after which team masseur Johannes Moors was jailed for suspicion of possessing drugs and breaches of French customs laws.
September 13, 1998: Two pharmacists Christine and Eric Paranier are questioned in respect to supplying illegal doping products to Voet.
[18] November 28, 1998: The results of the analysis of the samples taken from the nine Festina riders are known and are subsequently released and revealed evidence of Human Growth Hormone, amphetamines, steroids, corticoids and Erythropoietin (EPO).
[citation needed] December 15, 1998: Laurent Brochard, Christophe Moreau and Didier Rous are suspended by the French Cycling Federation for six months and cannot ride until April 30, 1999.
[34][35] October 23, 2000: Start of the Festina trial with ten people charged, including: Witnesses included: October 23, 2000: Erwann Menthéour's book, Secret Defonce: Ma vérité sur le dopage (February 1999) describes how he used EPO while riding for Française des Jeux in 1997, and stated that the soigneur of the Française des Jeux team, Jef d'Hont, was the one providing him with EPO and treating him with a glucose-infusion one hour ahead of a UCI hematocrit test in the 1997 edition of Paris–Nice, in a vain attempt to lower his hematocrit value below the 50%-limit.
Jesús Hoyos (Banesto), Kepa Celaya (ONCE) and Eufemiano Fuentes (Kelme doctor) spoke to the Spanish daily paper As to refute this statement.
December 22, 2000: Virenque was cleared from the criminal charge of "inciting the administration of doping and masking products to others and complicity in the importation of drugs".