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Tour De France Winners Tainted By Performance-Enhancing Drugs

Tour De France Winners Tainted By Drugs
Samuel Luckhurst
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News Lance Armstrong will not contest drug charges by the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency is another chapter in the tainted history of cycling's Tour de France winners.

USADA plan to strip Armstrong of the seven successive Tours he won between 1999 and 2005, while the American has refused to "participate in a process that is so one-sided and unfair".

Armstrong maintains he is innocent but his unwillingness to fight USADA - in the same week in which a Texas court dismissed his lawsuit against the body - means he is the fourth winner of the famed Gallic race to be tarnished.

Here are the others...

  1. Bjarne Riis admitted doping during the 1996 Tour de France and organisers have since stated they no longer consider him to be the winner.
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Riis

  • Floyd Landis took victory on the final day of the Tour in 2006, but he was found to have tested positive for performance enhancing drugs during the race's 17th stage. USADA found him guilty of using synthetic testosterone and he was stripped of his title on 20 September 2007.

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    Landis

  • Alberto Contador, victorious in 2007 and 2009 stood on the winning podium in Paris again in 2010, but the race was under review by the Court of Arbitration for Sport. The Spaniard tested positive for performance enhancing drugs and Luxembourg's Andy Schleck was declared the winner.
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    Contador

    Ironically Schleck's brother, Frank, was withdrawn from the 2012 Tour after he tested positive for the banned substance Xipamide, which is used for the treatment of oedema and hypertension.

    On the official Tour de France website, both Riis and Contador are still listed as winners.

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