News for December 3, 1997

Contracts and Transfers

Dutch Drug Scandal - Part 9

The best team in the World at present, the French Festina team, is now being accused of a new drugs scandal in Belgium and the Netherlands. In 1992, Team Doctor Erik Ryckaert, was the successor to the Geleen team doctor Wim Sanders for the Dutch team PDM, and was suspected of having bought the blood doping substance EPO from a Gent chemist.

It is not a regular occurrence for a Gent chemist to supply to a colleague in the Netherlands. The Dagblad De Limburg (a daily newspaper in Maastricht which has broken this whole story) and the Flemish newspaper, Het Volk have discovered these linkages. According to sources, police have conducted a house search of the Festina doctor Ryckaert in the East Flanders village of Oostwinkel and the chemist Kris Vanderstichele (48) in Gent. The EPO supplies were found in an investigation of black money, false prescriptions and various swindles involving at least 10,000 guilders from health insurance funds.

A similar search 2 years ago was conducted on the ex-PDM doctor Sanders in Geleen by the FIOD (Fiscal Enquiry and Tracing Service - Tax Department). That search detected an extensive drugs network, where chemists in Belgium, the Netherlands, and Germany were supplying an assortment of forbidden drugs to Sanders. The affair came out in the open for the first time last week. The drug revelations in Belgium is more recent data to support the more general hypothesis that the PDM matter is not an isolated affair. The chemist, who is in his free time the President of a football club, spent a day alone in a prison cell last month. He had EPO and had supplied to Ryckaert. The Belgian doctor finished with PDM in 1993 when the ex-team leader Jan Gisbers finished. He then went over to Festina. Ryckaert has denied having EPO and have supplied it to his cycling team.

Festina is currently the best cycling team in the world. The last two years they have won the team's classification in the Tour de France. Richard Virenque is the best climber in the peloton and Laurent Brochard won the World Road Championships two months ago.

Festina came into disrepute this year after allegations of EPO abuse. In the Giro d'Italia, the team was blood tested and Thierry Laurent was forbidden from starting because he had an excessive haemocrit level, allegedly a sign of EPO doping.

In the 1993 Amstel Gold Race, Festina rider Pascal Lino returned a positive drug test. The French rider who had worn the yellow jersey in the Tour de France for several days that year was not prosecuted or suspended by the authorities.

This second drugs scandal in a short time is new evidence that there is widespread abuse of EPO in international cycling and provides a renewed signal that serious questions have to be asked about the supply chain of EPO and other forbidden substance between chemists and doctors in Belgium and the Netherlands.

Now they are evading the drug tests

Last week it was drugs and sex... now we go lower!

A case of causing actual bodily harm was before the Polish courts on Monday. The incident happened in early September and the bus driver said he gave two warnings by horn before he overtook the cyclist. The PAP news agency reports: prosecutors alleged on Monday. "At the next stop the enraged cyclist left his bike, got onto the crowded bus and began a row which prevented it from driving on. Then he beat the driver, broke his nose, bit him in the stomach and genitals."

The 30-year old rider said that the bus had endangered his life. He claimed the bus driver had slammed the door shut when he tried to argue with him. The cyclist faces 3 years jail.

[Bill notes: Now I know what to do next time the Morisset Bus gives me the pip! I feel inspired.]

Change of Date for Big Perth Criterium Series

World Championship Cyclo Cross Site 2000

Teleflex Tour in Doubt

The consequence is that their budget is reduced by around 200.000 guilders. They are looking for another new sponsor and there will be problems if they can't find a sponsor in the next few weeks.