In 1924, Henri Pelissier, who won the 1923 Tour de France, and his brother Francis said:
- "You have no idea what the Tour de France is," Henri said. "It's a Calvary. Worse than that, because the road to the Cross has only 14 stations and ours has 15. We suffer from the start to the end. You want to know how we keep going? Here..." He pulled a phial from his bag. "That's cocaine, for our eyes. This is chloroform, for our gums."
- "This," Ville said, emptying his shoulder bag "is liniment to put warmth back into our knees."
- "And pills. Do you want to see pills? Have a look, here are the pills." Each pulled out three boxes.
- "The truth is," Francis said, "that we keep going on dynamite."
Henri spoke of being as white as shrouds once the dirt of the day had been washed off, then of their bodies being drained by diarrhoea, before continuing:
- "At night, in our rooms, we can't sleep. We twitch and dance and jig about as though we were doing St Vitus's Dance..."
- "There's less flesh on our bodies than on a skeleton," Francis said
These last days and it is not a surprise, a few riders were tested positive again. I am glad cuz that means that the tests are efficient but do you think that we can watch a Tour de France with 100% "clean" riders in the future? What to think of the 2008 winner when you see the here-below table where a few former winners are listed?
| Years | Name | Status | Details |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2007 | Alberto Contador | Clean | Named in Operacion Puerto doping case, but later declared clean. |
| 2006 | Floyd Landis | Banned | Tested positive for high testosterone to epitestosterone ratio; Oscar Pereiro named as winner in default - Clean but cleared after testing positive for salbutamol |
| 1999-2005 | Lance Armstrong | Clean | 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. Tested positive for glucocorticosteroid hormone without prescription given in advance. |
| 1998 | Marco Pantani | Banned (deceased) | Failed a blood test in 1999 Giro d'Italia; Insulin found in his hotel room in the 2001 Giro d'Italia |
| 1997 | Jan Ullrich | Banned | Tested positive for amphetamines (off season, not taken for athletic performance gain) Involved in the Operacion Puerto case |
| 1996 | Bjarne Riis | Confessed | Confessed having used EPO in 1996 |
| 1991-1995 | Miguel Indurain | Tested positive | Tested positive for salbutamol in 1994, which was not yet forbidden by UCI. Connections with doping-doctor Conconi |
| 1986 1989-1990 |
Greg LeMond | Clean | |
| 1988 | Pedro Delgado | Used doping | Tested positive for probenecid in the 1988 Tour de France, although it was not illegal for cyclists at that time |
| 1987 | Stephen Roche | Involved in case | According to an investigation in Italy into the practices of Francesco Conconi, Roche received EPO in 1993 |
| 1978-1979 1981-1982 1985 |
Bernard Hinault | Clean | |
| 1983-1984 | Laurent Fignon | Tested positive | In 1989 Fignon tested positive after a team time trial |
| 1980 | Joop Zoetemelk | Tested positive | Tested positive in the 1977 (pemoline), 1979 (steroids) and 1983 Tour de France (nandrolon, although that was retracted later) |
| 1975 1977 |
Bernard Thévenet | Confessed | Admitted using steroids in the 1975 and 1977 Tour |
| 1976 | Lucien Van Impe | Clean | The first Tour winner since 1966 never connected to doping |
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