The dark side of the Tour de France: FOUR deaths, drug busts, crashes, bankruptcy and the shocking Lance Armstrong doping scandal

Since its inception in 1903, the Tour de France has been one of the biggest sporting events on the calendar, capturing the attention of many from all corners of the world. But it has not been without its controversies.

Over 15,000 cyclists have taken part in the iconic race since it began which winds its way around France and other nations in Europe. It is the largest and most revered cycling race meeting in the sport, with teams of riders flocking to Europe to take on the gruelling 3,498km race that spans over 21 stages.

While there is glory for the victor, the race is not for the faint-hearted, with riders putting their bodies to the limit to tackle the epic race. 

Over the years, this iconic race has been overshadowed by accidents, scandals and some concerning events that have seen both riders and spectators die, competitors be ostracised and some sustain serious injuries. 

Mail Sport takes a look back at some of the more controversial stories that have overshadowed the Tour de France.  

Crashes

All sports come with an amount of risk. But racing at 25kmph with only a helmet on alongside 100 other riders on treacherous roads throughout Europe makes the Tour de France one of the most high octane, yet dangerous sporting events on the calendar. 

As Mark Cavendish may say, the peril of injury that comes with the sport demands a level of bravery and rigour that not many would be willing to risk. The British rider, who currently competes with Astana Qazaqstan, has been involved in several serious crashes during his career, with perhaps the most brutal and shocking taking place during stage one of the 2017 race.

Controversially, Cavendish, who broke his shoulder blade in the incident, had appeared to be elbowed by former World Champion Peter Sagan during the sprint race. The British rider was knocked into an advertising board and then to the ground, with Sagan later being disqualified for the dangerous move. Cavendish would also break his collarbone after coming off his bike in the 2023 Tour de France. 

In 1994, a police officer stood on the track during the first stage of the race, caused another horrific incident, that saw rider Wilfried Nelissen smash into the man at high speed. 

The video footage of that incident is equally shocking. It shows the rider career into the officer at full steam, who was reportedly taking pictures of the race as the competitors passed.

The Belgian rider was upended from his bike, and according to Velo, had been knocked unconscious. As a result, Frenchman Laurent Jalabert fell head-first into the tarmac, shattering his teeth and breaking his cheekbone.

But spectators have also caused serious pile-ups at the event, with a spectator being fined 1,200 Euros after causing a serious and now infamous pile up during the 2021 Tour de France. The 31-year-old received the sanction for putting those participating in the race in danger after she stepped onto the course holding a cardboard sign. 

German rider Tony Martin struck the spectator thus causing multiple other riders to fall to the ground and subsequently withdraw with injury. The woman later turned herself in to the police and was also required to pay a symbolic Euro to the National Union of Professional Cyclists.

British rider Sir Bradley Wiggins spoke on the crash after the incident where he hit out at the spectator involved in the incident. 

“People have put their livelihoods on the line,’ he vented to The Bradley Wiggins Show. 

‘We’ve lost a rider from that crash who’s had to abandon unfortunately. Tony Martin went down… This is people’s livelihoods. People have trained all year for this, a very difficult year as well don’t forget, and a lot is at stake – this is the Tour de France!

‘The crash at 6km to go is a race crash, this is murder! It just infuriates me.’

Cycling’s darkest hour

Every so often an athlete comes along and transcends a sport. 

For cycling, Lance Armstrong was that man. He sprinkled stardust on cycling, putting it on the map with his dominance in the Tour de France between 1999 and 2005. 

Armstong, who had also beaten cancer prior to winning his titles, even had cameos in multiple Hollywood films, signifying how much he was revered around the world. 

But his rise to greatness was just as big as his fall, with Armstrong being stripped of his seven Tour de France titles following the revelations that he was guilty of taking performance-enhancing drugs. 

Throughout his career, he would be subject to accusations that he had used performance-enhancing drugs, with French outlet L’Equipe reporting in 2005 that urine samples taken at the 1999 Tour de France contained traces of Erythropoietin – a drug which is used to increase the blood’s oxygen-carrying capacity.

The cyclist hit back at the claims, branding them a ‘witch hunt’, per The Guardian, and maintained his innocence. Further investigations would be made against him in 2012. This time with the United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) accusing the cyclist of using banned substances, including steroids and erythropoietin.

The USADA would subsequently charge Armstrong for he was charged for using banned substances. 

A legal battle would follow, with Armstrong choosing not to move forward with his contest against the USADA’s charges and subsequently received a lifetime ban from the sport. The American subsequently had all of his titles he had won since August, 1, 1998 stripped. 

He would later admit to doping in a public interview with Oprah Winfrey in 2013. Armstrong had stated that he had used performance-enhancing drugs for each of his seven Tour de France victories, but added that the last time he had ‘crossed the line’ was in 2005. 

‘This story was so perfect for so long- and I mean that as I try to take myself out of this situation- it’s this mythic, perfect story and that wasn’t true, on a lot of levels,’ he said. 

He added: ‘I view this situation as one big lie that I repeated a lot of times and as you said it wasn’t as if I just said no and moved off of it.’ 

The Festina affair 

Cycling, though, has been embroiled in doping scandals over the years, with allegations of strategic doping having emerged throughout the sport’s history. 

And the Festina affair is one of the biggest scandals the world of sport has ever seen and has been perhaps a huge catalyst in helping promote fair and clean participation in athletic competition. 

Riders were gathering in Ireland for the start of the 1998 edition of the Tour, when soigneur, Willy Voet, was found with a raft of performance-enhancing drugs in the boot of his car while attempting at the border between France and Belgium. 

Voet had been a race assistant to team Festina’s leader Richard Virenque, but had been caught by customs officers with a large amount of banned substances and caused havoc throughout the race. 

According to The Guardian, he stated he had been acting under the instructions of his team, Festina. Several team members were arrested with Festina’s director, Bruno Roussell, stating that there was ‘systematic doping’ within the team, per Cycling News. 

While individual riders had previously been reprimanded for using banned substances, in an unprecedented event the entire team was ejected from the 85th edition of the iconic race. Then director of the Tour, Jean-Marie LeBlanc had stated the action was taken ‘to counter to the general well-being of the race’, per The Washington Post. 

Meanwhile, police raided other team buses and hotels, with riders staging protests against the heavy-handed action against them. Police had been criticised for their approach approach, with riders subsequently protesting the police’s action with many even dropping out from the race. 

During a trial in 2000, into the events that had unfolded at the 1998 event, which is now often dubbed the ‘Tour de Farce’ Virenque admitted to doping, as did his team-mate Pascal Herve. Voet would, meanwhile, receive a 10-month suspended sentence and a 3,000 franc fine for his role in the affair. 

The 2006 and 2007 Tours 

Despite the revelations of the Festina scandal, the tour would be struck again by several big doping issues in the noughties. 

On the eve of the 2006 event, several riders including Jan Ullrich and Ivan Basso were prohibited from participating in the race, following what was known as Operacion Puerto. The investigation uncovered a culture of doping within the professional realms of the sport which was instigated by doctor Eufemiano Fuentes.  

The investigation also forced the Astana-Wurth team to withdraw, after five of its nine riders were banned from racing. 

But doping allegations would not end there after the eventual 2006 Tour de France winner Floyd Landis was accused of having taken performance-enhancing substances and was later banned from cycling for two years and stripped of his title following a legal battle. 

The 2007 edition of the race was again marred by multiple doping allegations. Alexander Vinokourov’s withdrawal was perhaps the most notable. The rider from Kazakhstan was found to have failed a test for blood doping, with his Astana team later withdrawing. 

Wiggins and the jiffy bag scandal

But questions over the use of substances within the sport have continued to engulf cycling. 

Wiggins is one of the greatest British riders to have ever participated in the sport, having clinched the Tour de France in 2012 with team Sky while also clinching eight Olympic gold medals during his distinguished career. 

But in 2011, Wiggins faced questions over a substance that was couriered from London to Geneva in a jiffy bag by British Cycling’s Simon Cope, after Sky’s doctor David Freeman asked him to deliver the package. 

What was in the package still to this day remains unknown, but some believe that a drug, triamcinolone, which is banned in competition, was in the package. 

Wiggins has denied any claims that he had used performance-enhancing drugs allowed by anti-doping rules under the guise of an illness. Wiggins stated the resulting investigation into the incident a ‘malicious witch hunt’. 

The investigation led by the UK Anti-Doping authority would subsequently be unable to establish if Wiggins had received a legal or banned substance, and was closed.   

However The Digital Culture Media and Sport committee stated that Team Sky had ‘crossed an ethical line’ by using permitted drugs to enhance performance. 

Wiggins retired in 2016, and earlier this year it was annouced that he had gone bankrupt with concerns mounting that he may have to part ways with his trophies and medals after falling into financial difficulty.

Tragedies

Sadly, throughout the history of the Tour de France, four competitors have lost their lives during the event through crashes and incidents both on and off the track.

French cyclist, Adolphe Heliere, was the first rider to tragically die during the 1910 Tour de France, aged 19. Heliere, a car mechanic, was one of the last riders to secure a spot on the then 15-stage, 4,734km race. 

During a rest day between the sixth and seventh stage, Heliere had, according to French outlet Ouest, chosen to take a swim in the sea on the coast of Nice. But while swimming, the rider tragically drowned and passed away.

Twenty-five years later, Spanish cyclist Francisco Cepeda would also lose his life after he suffered a fall on the descent of the Col du Galibier during the seventh stage of the 1935 tour. The rider came off his bike as he proceeded to go around a bend, also knocking Adriano Vignoli over – who reportedly retired with a broken collar bone.

Cepeda, 29, would continue the race but collapsed a few meters down the road. He was taken to hospital and was diagnosed with a fractured skull and passed away from the injury.

British rider Tom Simpson is the third cyclist to have died during the Tour. Simpson, who hailed from Harworth in Nottinghamshire, had won bronze in the 4,000m team pursuit at the 1956 Melbourne Olympics. In 1967 the rider was ascending the climb up Mont Ventoux mountain when he collapsed and died. It was later revealed that Simpson had traces of amphetamines in his blood and had died due to ‘heart failure’.

Italian rider, Fabio Casartelli, was the last cyclist to pass away, aged 24, while competing in the Tour de France. During the 15th stage of the 1995 event, the 1992 Olympic Champion crashed on the descent of the Col de Portet d’Aspet, a mountain pass in the Pyrenees.

During the crash, he sustained a severe head injury and was airlifted via helicopter to hospital. Tragically he would lose his life despite receiving medical care from doctors in the hospital.

But cyclists are not the only people to have died at the event, with several spectators and officials also having been involved in accidents around the course.

The most recent occurred in 2009 when a woman in her 60s was struck by a Tour official, with the spectator passing away from their injuries.

Perhaps the most tragic event occurred in 1964 when a gasoline tank skidded into a crowd of spectators who had gathered to watch passing riders on the Tour. At least 10 persons were killed in the accident which took place near Bergerac.