Never in its history has the Tour de France seemed so close to disappearing than in 1999, 25 years ago.
During the presentation of the 1999 Tour, there was little mention of the route that would take the riders from Puy-du-Fou to Paris at the end of the 3,680 kilometer route. Memories of the 1998 Tour plagued by doping were in everyone’s minds and the speech given by Jean-Marie Leblanc was especially notable for the announcement of a series of measures to promote a Tour of renewal.
“Only the teams that we consider worthy of respecting it will come to participate in the Tour,” warned the former rider, who announced the addition of “ethical terms” for the selection of teams and riders. The organizers thus reserved the right to refuse the start of their event to a rider (or a team) subject to a procedure linked to doping or to exclude any training. “convinced of having violated the general principles of the test”.
Fear of a police raid
Medical control would also be reinforced, with a biological assessment of each runner having to be established just before the race, and the teams were also asked to show their credentials by adhering to one or the other charter of ethics and sporting morality adopted. by the International Association of Professional Cycling Groups or by sponsors.
If all the last winners – Bjarne Riss, Jan Ullrich and Marco Pantani – were shown up, as well as Laurent Jalabert, the authorities finally forced the organizers of the Tour to welcome the blacklisted riders including Richard Virenque, despite being stuck in the Festina affair. Enough to make Jean-Marie Leblanc and other leaders fear the worst.
The fears are such that the organizers even considered pausing the Tour de France for a year or reorganizing it with national teams. Because if most of the Tour partners ultimately stayed, they said they were ready to say stop in the event of new scandals. Worse, a new irruption by the police would this time simply stop the race, unlike what was done the previous year. The Tour du Renouveau was left to tremble.
