News for November 6, 1998

Contracts and Transfers

Laurent Madouas from Lotto-Mobistar and Francisque Teyssier from Mutuelle de Seine-et-Marne will join the Festina team in 1999. Meanwhile, in an interview in Le Figaro, Gines Gorriz (director of the Swiss Festina company) said Virenque and Festina will be parting company in the near future. He said: 'We don't want to go further with riders who are still facing disciplinary procedures. But don't misunderstand us - we are not saying that Virenque is guilty of using illegal performance-enhancing drugs. Virenque didn't accept the salary offer. We want to pay a maximum of 3 million French francs per year for a rider. Virenque was earning 12 million French francs."

Tour de France 1999

The first information is now coming in about next year's Tour de France. The main feature will be the inclusion of an extra rest day. Next year there will be 2 rest days and a shorter distance overall - 3680 kms instead of 3877 kms which was raced in 1998.

The extra rest day was decided upon to answer critics who say that the race is too hard and leads to drug abuse. The 86th Tour de France will start on July 3 in Puy-de-Fou amd will finish on July 25 in Paris. It will venture outside of France only once - to the Italian Alpine finish at Sestrière on July 13. A day later, Bastille Day, the tour will climb Alpe d'Huez. This year the race did not go up l'Alpe d'Huez.

The prologue will be in the neighbourhood of Europe's greatest open-air theatre in Le Puy du Fou, which was also the starting city in 1993. The detailed route is as follows:

July 3 - Prologue, Le Puy-du-Fou, 8 kms
July 4 - Stage 1, Montaigu - Challans, 209 kms
July 5 - Stage 2, Challans - Saint-Nazaire, 202 kms
July 6 - Stage 3, Nantes - Laval, 194 kms
July 7 - Stage 4, Laval - Blois, 191 kms
July 8 - Stage 5, Bonneval - Amiens, 228 kms
July 9 - Stage 6, Amiens - Maubeuge, 169 kms
July 10 - Stage 7, Avesnes-sur-Helpe - Thionville, 223 kms
July 11 - Stage 8, Metz, Individual Time Trial 56 kms
July 12 - Rest Day
July 13 - Stage 9, Le Grand Bornand - Sestriere, 215 kms
July 14 - Stage 10, Sestriere - L'Alpe d'Huez, 218 kms
July 15 - Stage 11, Bourg d'Oisan - Saint-Etienne, 199 kms
July 16 - Stage 12, Saint-Galmier - Saint-Flour, 197 kms
July 17 - Stage 13, Saint-Flour - Albi, 237 kms
July 18 - Stage 14, Castres - Saint-Gaudens, 189 kms
July 19 - Rest Day
July 20 - Stage 15, Saint-Gaudens - Piau-Engaly, 174 kms
July 21 - Stage 16, Lannemezan - Pau, 192 kms
July 22 - Stage 17, Mourenx - Bordeaux, 184 kms
July 23 - Stage 18, Jonzac - Futuroscope, 182 kms
July 24 - Stage 19, Futuroscope, Individual Time Trial 54.5 kms
July 25 - Stage 20, Arpajon - Champs-Elysees, 160 kms

The Tour director, Jean-Marie Leblanc said at the announcement ceremony for next year's Tour de France that the organisers was not noticably shorter than previous races - covering 3,680 stages over 20 stages - the average of 1990 events. The big difference was the second rest day.

He denied that there was any relationship between distance and drug use. He told the press: "It's not up to the Tour de France to make new efforts. Since the Second World War, the time and length of the Tour de France has continually dropped. It has passed from 26 days and more than 4,500 kmss to an average 22 days and less than 4,000 kms. The calendar never stops getting heavier and it's in this direction that we must work. There's no reason to believe that if there's doping it's because the Tour is too long. There's no link between the two."

He elaborated and said he thought there should be less one-day events and that they should be shorter.

Analysing next year's route, the race goes clockwise and hits the Alps prior to the Pyrennees. There are only four Haute Categorie mountain stages, 3 mountain top finishes, and 23 classified climbs in all.

The format now includes a rest day before each plunge in the high mountain stages and 2 less teams than last year (20 from 22).

Drugs Update

The Dutch Prime Minister Wim Kok has approached his counterpart in France, Lionel Jospin to intervene in the detention of Cees Priem, who has been detained by French police without being formally charged since July 23. Priem, the TVM manager, was detained along with the team doctor, Russian Andrei Mikhailov after performance-enhancing drugs were allegedly discovered in the team's hotel during the Tour de France. Earlier, in March, the TVM truck was stopped and large quantities of EPO were found by French customs officers.

The French Prime Minister said in response to the request that there was separation of powers in France and the judiciary were completely independent.

Priem, is under house arrest and has to report to police on a daily basis. He has been placed under investigation which in French law is one step away from being formally charged. The Dutch are now claiming that the detention is part of a French action to reflect their disdain for the liberal drugs laws in the Netherlands. The French PM however was not at all impressed by the claim. He told the press after his meeting with Wim Kok (which was held at the Dutch PM's state house in the Hague) that: "I can tell you one thing. We are involved in a struggle against doping in sport. I am sure everyone agrees with the necessity of eradicating doping from sport."