The race will be over 10 stages for a total distance of 1,422 kms and fill finish on December 13 in Ouagadougou. The 1997 race was won by a local rider Ernest Zongo, who was not selected by the Burkina team this year because of disciplinary reasons.
The former soigneur of Festina, Willy Voet who was caught smuggling huge quantities of EPO and other banned substances into France from Belgium in July, has said that contrary to the denials of Richard Virenque and Pascal Hervé that they received injections of EPO. He told the Thursday edition of the French newspaper, France-Soir, that he was the mentor for Virenque and Hervé and that each one of them were "large consumers of EPO" and "received on average between 90 and 100 injections of EPO per year."
The new accusations have placed the denials of the riders in doubt. He also said that prior to the UCI bringing in the limit of 50 per cent red blood cell counts, "all the riders in Festina in 1995 and 1996 had hematocrit levels of between 50 and 55, including Virenque et Hervé."
He said he used to make a "Belgian Pot" which was a mixture of heroin, cocaine, amphetamines and caffeine to give to the riders. He said: "Virenque had access to this like the others but I remember he was particularly careful with this explosive cocktail. Also, Richard was not the largest user of the corticoids and growth hormones although he used them at the time of the Tour de France which was his priority."
The ex-soigneur also said that both Virenque and Hervé had taken anabolic substances, which were untraceable within 7 days. "They took them like the other riders did."
TVM riders face the Judge
The 8 TVM riders left the court in Reims on Thursday and declined to make any comment.
The Dutch riders Jeroen Blijlevens, Bart Voskamp, Servais Knaven, and Tristan Hoffman, the Belgians Hendrik Van Dijck and Peter Van Petegem, the Swede Michael Lafis and the Ukrainian Serguei Outschakov, were taken to their hotel by their lawyer Peter De Boer. He told each one of them to remain silent even though the journalists who had gathered for the reactions were pressing them.
Sprinter Jeroen Blďjlevens said on arrival in the morning that he hoped they would only be their for 5 minutes because they were not guilty of anything. On exit, 6 hours later, he would only say: "They showed us the results of the analysis and asked the same questions that they asked us in August."
The French rider Laurent Roux will be heard on Monday in Cahors as part of the same investigation.
The 9 riders were questioned like witnesses and according to their lawyer: "reaffirmed their claims that they did not use any banned substances." This was contrary to the evidence presented in the scientific report that drugs like EPO, corticoids, amphetamines and even cannabis were detected in the test samples taken during the Tour de France.
Meanwhile, the release of the team doctor Andrei Mikhailov was imminent. Later in the afternoon, on of the TVM lawyers Bertrand Lavelot, came out the front of the police station and announced to the assembled press that they were "very near to securing his release." Mikhailov has been detained by police at Châlons-en-Champagne since July 27. The pending release was confirmed by a judicial official.
The starting place in 1999 will be in Solothurn. The race will run from June 15=24. It is traditionally the last warm up tour before the National Championships and the Tour de France.
The 25-year old German, who won the Tour de France in 1997 and was second in 1996 and 1998, announced during a press conference on Wednesday in the southern German town of Frottach-Egern that: "I will race Milan-San Remo, Luik-Bastenaken-Luik and the Amstel Gold Race. I will also be racing in October at the World Championships. I plan to ride the Vuelta as preparation for the Worlds."
Ullrich has never ridden the senior World Championship race. Most recently in Valkenburg he missed out because of a lingering achilles tendon problem. In June next year he also plans to win the inaugural Tour of Germany.
Lothar Heinrich, the Telekom doctor, said that Ullrick was keeping in great shape this year. Last year he was 14 kgs overweight at the start of the season. This year he is already ahead of preparation.