The Festina Affair Shattered Cycling Image in 1998

The 1998 Tour de France will forever be remembered as the year cycling doping problem exploded into public view. Just days before the race began, Willy Voet, a soigneur for the Festina team, was stopped at the French-Belgian border. Police found his car stuffed with 234 doses of EPO, 82 doses of human growth hormone, and numerous other doping products. The ensuing scandal led to police raids on team hotels, mass arrests, and confessions from team staff about systematic doping programs. Several teams withdrew from the race entirely. The scandal shattered cycling carefully cultivated image and demonstrated that doping was not just the work of individual rogue athletes but organized team-wide programs. It marked a turning point that eventually led to the creation of the World Anti-Doping Agency.