French Senate releases positive EPO cases from 1998 Tour de France

The French Senate has released the names of riders who returned traces of EPO in doping controls during the 1998 Tour de France. On Wednesday morning the Senate met to discuss their report, which had gathered testimonies from 83 sportsmen and officials since February, including UCI President Pat McQuaid and former rider and French national coach Laurent Jalabert.

Along with naming riders who had tested positive the anti-doping commission of the French Senate made proposals to strengthen the fight against drugs and released documents including retrospective analysis conducted on the samples of cyclists during the 1998 Tours de France.

The samples, although taken in 1998, were part of a retroactive testing programme carried out by the French Anti-Doping Agency AFLD in 2004. The list contains 18 riders with traces of EPO and 12 riders that the Senate reported as suspicious.

The Senate ordered that no results would be stripped as a result of their report: "Nobody will face sanctions. We aren’t policemen. We aren’t magistrates. We haven’t noted absolute lies but put-offs and self-censorship," they said.

Positive:

Andrea Tafi, Erik Zabel, Bo Hamburger (twice), Laurent Jalabert, Marcos Serrano, Jens Heppner, Jeroen Blijlevens, Nicola Minali, Mario Cipollini, Fabio Sacchi, Eddy Mazzoleni, Jacky Durand, Abraham Olano, Laurent Desbiens, Marco Pantani, Manuel Beltran, Jan Ullrich (twice), Kevin Livingston (twice)

Suspicious:
Ermanno Brignoli, Alain Turicchia, Pascal Chanteur, Frederic Moncassin, Bobby Julich, Roland Meier, Giuseppe Calcaterra, Stefano Zanini, Eddy Mazzoleni, Stephane Barthe, Stuart O'Grady, Axel Merckx