The End of the Road

The Festina Affair and the Tour that Almost Wrecked Cycling

Alasdair Fotheringham

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English

Bloomsbury Sport
01 August 2017

Sporting events, tours & organisations; Cycling

The Tour de France is always one of the sporting calendar’s most spectacular and dramatic events. But the 1998 Tour provided drama like no other. As the opening stages in Ireland unfolded, the Festina team’s soigneur Willy Voet was arrested on the French–Belgian border with a car-load of drugs. Raid after police raid followed, with arrest after arrest hammering the Tour. In protest, there were riders’ strikes and go-slows, with several squads withdrawing en masse andone expelled. By the time the Tour reached Paris, just 96 of the 189 starters remained. And of those 189 starters, more than a quarter were later reported to have doped. The 1998 ‘Tour de Farce’s’ status as one of the most scandal-struck sporting events in history was confirmed.

Voet’s arrest was just the beginning of sport’s biggest mass doping controversy – what became known as the Festina affair. It all but destroyed professional cycling as the credibility of the entire sport was called into question and the cycling family began to split apart. And yet, ironically, the 1998 Tour was also one of the best races in years.

The End of the Road is the first English-language book to provide in-depth analysis and a colourful evocation of the tumultuous events during the 1998 Tour. Alasdair Fotheringham uncovers, step by step, how the world’s biggest bike race sank into a nightmarish series of scandals that left the sport on its knees. He explores its long-term consequences – and what, if any, lessons were learned.

By: Alasdair Fotheringham
Imprint: Bloomsbury Sport
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions: Height: 198mm, Width: 129mm,
Weight: 314g
ISBN: 9781472913043
ISBN 10: 1472913043
Pages: 352
Publication Date: 01 August 2017
Audience: General/trade , ELT Advanced
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active

Prologue: As Good As It Gets? 1 Unbeatable Jan? 2 ‘And When Did You Last See Your Soigneur?’ 3 Le Tour en Irlande: Red Wine, Guinness – and EPO 4 From Aspirins to Vacuum Cleaners: The Life of a Young 1990s Professional 5 From Vegetable Basket to Victories: Behind the Scenes with Festina 6 The End of the Road 7 The UCI and Anti-Doping: From Cuba to India (via France) 8 The Pyrenees: Two Cheers for Elefantino 9 Ten Minutes to Midnight: Strike One 10 The Communication Breakdown – Media and the 1998 Tour 11 Out Here in the Middle: Frankie Andreu, the White Lady and Handling the 1998 Tour 12 Pantani Turns the Clock Back 13 The Exception to the Rule 14 Nobody Listens to the Weak: The Second Rebellion 15 Early Exits 16 Can I Still Be Second? 17 The Final Lap 18 Aftermath: A Double-Edged Sword: Where are They Now? 1998 Tour de France: Start List The 1998 Tour de France Stage Winners and Final Classification Bibliography Acknowledgements Index

Alasdair Fotheringham is a freelance journalist, and was the cycling correspondent for the Independent and the Independent on Sunday from 2001 to 2016. He has covered 24 Tours de France and 20 Tours of Spain, the Olympics in 2008 and 2012 and numerous other major bike races. He is also a regular contributor to Cyclingnews and ProCycling. His previous books are The Eagle of Toledo, a biography of Spain’s first Tour de France winner Federico Martín Bahamontes, and Reckless: The Life and Times of Luis Ocaña.

Reviews for The End of the Road: The Festina Affair and the Tour that Almost Wrecked Cycling

This book provides a fascinating insight into how low a professional team will go to achieve their goal * www.cambridge-news.co.uk * [A] thoroughly researched book * www.cambridge-news.co.uk * So much more than an account of a single Tour: one of the most thorough explanations of the drug taking culture in cycling * Road.cc * A gripping account of the 1998 Tour de France * The Daily Telegraph *