The End of the Road

The first detailed account of the Festina affair, which ripped apart the 1998 Tour de France and irrevocably changed 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 and one 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 lessons, if any, were learned.

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.

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