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Miguel Indurain (Tour de France 1993) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)Once again this year’s Tour de France was marred by a drug scandal as Frank Schleck tested positive and withdrew from the race. A test of his B-Sample is still to be released and until then I will not pass judgement. It has however brought the spotlight back on to a sport that has been plagued by doping allegations and charges throughout the years. It also raises the question if enough is being done to stop doping?
Just looking at the winners of the Tour de France over since 1961 and how many of them have tested positive for some sort of banned substance as well as the sanctions imposed on them it is clear that not enough has been done. Here is the list:
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- Eddy Merckx, who has won the most Grand Tours with 11 victories. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Status
Details
Years | Name |
1957
1961–1964 | Jacques Anquetil | Confessed doping use | Debated with French government minister on television, saying “Leave me in peace; everybody takes dope.”
After winning Liège–Bastogne–Liège in 1966, was temporarily disqualified after refusing a drug test, saying he had already been to the toilet. He was later reinstated after he engaged a lawyer as the case was never heard. |
| 1965 | Felice Gimondi | Never tested positive | |
| 1966 | Lucien Aimar | Tested positive
Banned for one month | Missed the 1969 Vuelta a España due to a one-month doping ban. |
| 1967 | Roger Pingeon | Never tested positive | |
| 1968 | Jan Janssen | Never tested positive | |
1969-1972
1974 | Eddy Merckx | Tested positive | Merckx has tested positive four times, but never at the Tour de France. He was expelled from the 1969 Giro d’Italia after testing positive for Reactivan. He tested positive for Mucantil after winning the 1973 Giro di Lombardia. The drug was later take off the banned list.
After the 1975 La Flèche Wallonne, Merckx tested positive for Stimul, blaming it on a doctor.
In 1977, he was caught for taking the amphetamine pemoline, along with Freddy Maertens and Michel Pollentier. |
| 1973 | Luis Ocaña | Never tested positive | |
1975
1977 | Bernard Thévenet | Never tested positive
Confessed doping use | Admitted using steroids in the 1975 and 1977 Tour |
| 1976 | Lucien Van Impe | Never tested positive | |
1978-1979
1981-1982
1985 | Bernard Hinault | Never tested positive | |
| 1980 | Joop Zoetemelk | Tested positive | Tested positive in the 1977 (pemoline), 1979 (steroids) and 1983 Tour de France (nandrolon, although that was retracted later) |
| 1983–1984 | Laurent Fignon | Tested positive | In 1989 Fignon tested positive after a team time trial tested positive for amphetamines at the Grand Prix de la Liberation in Eindhoven on 17 September 1989. |
1986
1989–1990 | Greg LeMond | Never tested positive | |
| 1987 | Stephen Roche | Never tested positive
Never sanctioned | According to an investigation in Italy into the practices of Francesco Conconi, Roche received EPO in 1993 |
| 1988 | Pedro Delgado | Tested positive
Never sanctioned | Tested positive for probenecid in the 1988 Tour de France, although it was not illegal for cyclists at that time |
| 1991–1995 | Miguel Indurain | Tested positive
Never sanctioned | Tested positive for salbutamol in 1994, however both the IOC and UCI allowed Indurain, and asthma sufferers to use Salbutomol at the time. |
| 1996 | Bjarne Riis | Never tested positive
Confessed doping use | Confessed having used EPO in 1996 |
| 1997 | Jan Ullrich | Never tested positive
Banned from the 2006 Tour | Tested positive for amphetamines (off-season, not taken for athletic performance gain)
Involved in the Operacion Puerto case. DNA subsequently linked to blood bag discovered during Puerto investigation |
| 1998 | Marco Pantani | Tested positive
Banned for six months | Failed a blood test in 1999 Giro d’Italia; Insulin found in his hotel room in the 2001 Giro d’Italia |
| 1999–2005 | Lance Armstrong | Tested positive
Never sanctioned | Tested positive for glucocorticosteroid hormone without prescription given in advance. Associated with Michele Ferrari, who is suspected of prescribing doping agents.
Allegations by former assistant for Androstenine use.
Alleged EPO use in 1999 Tour de France.
According to court testimony by former teammate, Frankie Andreu, Armstrong admitted to doping to his doctor when in hospital for cancer treatment
Floyd Landis accused Armstrong of doping in 2002 and 2003, and claimed that U.S. Postal team director Johan Bruyneel had bribed former UCI president Hein Verbruggen to keep quiet about a positive Armstrong test in 2002. Landis also maintains that he witnessed Armstrong receiving multiple blood transfusions, and dispensing testosterone patches to his teammates on the United States Postal Service Team.
Former team-mate Tyler Hamilton accused Armstrong of doping with testimony to a federal grand jury during an investigation of Armstrong. Hamilton implicated Lance Armstrong had used EPO on the TV news show 60 Minutes |
| 2006 | Floyd Landis | Tested positive
Banned for two years | Tested positive for high testosterone to epitestosterone ratio; Óscar Pereiro named as winner by default – Clean but cleared after testing positive for salbutamol. In 2010 admitted to taking EPO, testosterone, human growth hormone and blood transfusions along with female hormones and insulin. |
2007
2009–2010 | Alberto Contador | Tested positive
Banned for two years | Named in Operación Puerto doping case, but later declared clean.
Tested positive during 2010 Tour de France for the banned stimulant clenbuterol. Suspended for two years. Andy Schleck named as winner by default |
| 2008 | Carlos Sastre | Never tested positive | |
| 2011 | Cadel Evans | Never tested positive | |
(Stats above via Wikipedia)
Out of 24 winners only 13 never tested positive for the use of a banned substance at the TDF. However of the 13, Bernard Thevenet (1975,1977) and Bjarne Riis (1996) confessed to the use of banned substances during the races that they won. Stephen Roche (1987) later got linked during an investigation to EPO use in 1993. Jan Ulrich (1997) was linked to Operation Puerto through DNA found on a blood bag, he got suspended from the 2006 race. Of the 11 winners that tested positive only 4 got suspensions and the longest was 2 years for both Alberto Contador (2010) and Floyd Landis (2006).
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Tour de France 2012 – Etape n°20 (Photo credit: Airelle.info)
The biggest scandal is probably still the Lance Armstrong case and until such time as it has been cleared up and a verdict rendered, I don’t even want to venture a guess on this one. With so many accusations being made against Lance and that there were positive tests it must say something. Then again on the other side of the coin we have a hero not only in the cycling world but for cancer patients as well. In the end I can’t see the use of going after Lance so many years after his last win. Rather start focussing on the current riders.
The only way that doping in cycling can be rooted out and stopped is if all professional riders are tested in every race that they do take part in. not random testing or only the winners of a stage being tested but every rider and every race. If found to have used a banned substance a 2 year ban doesn’t seem quite enough to deter riders from doping. Isn’t it time for harsher sanctions to be employed? A lifetime ban or even a jail sentence is what I would recommend. I see this nothing more than fraud or stealing. They commit fraud against sponsors and a team that assume that they are clean of drugs and doping and stealing from supporters and spectators who pays to see these riders compete.
In the end this is just my view but one I believe is shared by most supporters of the sport.
Follow me on twitter @djvanman
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