Voet was born into a working-class family, with a father who worked as a train driver and who had been a semi-professional footballer and a mother who was an upholsterer.
On 8 July 1998, Voet was stopped by French Customs agents on the Chemin du Dronckaert[4] as he tried to cross the French-Belgian border close to Neuville-en-Ferrain, near Lille in northern France.
[5] In his Festina team car, the agents found large quantities of syringes and controlled substances including narcotics, erythropoietin (EPO), growth hormones, testosterone and amphetamines.
[7] Voet says he worked with the Festina team doctor, Eric Rijkaert, whose opinion was that drug-taking could not be eliminated from cycling and that it would be better therefore to see that doping happened with medical supervision.
He has been declared persona non grata by the Tour de France management and been asked to stay away from the race even as a private individual.