The End of the Road: The Festina Affair and the Tour that Almost Wrecked Cycling

(Paperback)

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Description

The Tour de France is always one of the sporting calendars most spectacular and dramatic events. But the 1998 Tour provided drama like no other. As the opening stages in Ireland unfolded, the Festina teams soigneur Willy Voet was arrested on the FrenchBelgian border with a car-load of drugs. Raid after police raid followed, with arrest after arrest hammering the Tour. In protest, there were riders strikes and go-slows, with several squads withdrawing en masse andone expelled. By the time the Tour reached Paris, just 96 of the 189 starters remained. And of those 189 starters, more than a quarter were later reported to have doped. The 1998 Tour de Farces status as one of the most scandal-struck sporting events in history was confirmed. Voets arrest was just the beginning of sports biggest mass doping controversy what became known as the Festina affair. It all but destroyed professional cycling as the credibility of the entire sport was called into question and the cycling family began to split apart. And yet, ironically, the 1998 Tour was also one of the best races in years. The End of the Road is the first English-language book to provide in-depth analysis and a colourful evocation of the tumultuous events during the 1998 Tour. Alasdair Fotheringham uncovers, step by step, how the worlds biggest bike race sank into a nightmarish series of scandals that left the sport on its knees. He explores its long-term consequences and what, if any, lessons were learned.

Reviews

This book provides a fascinating insight into how low a professional team will go to achieve their goal * www.cambridge-news.co.uk *
[A] thoroughly researched book * www.cambridge-news.co.uk *
So much more than an account of a single Tour: one of the most thorough explanations of the drug taking culture in cycling * Road.cc *
A gripping account of the 1998 Tour de France * The Daily Telegraph *

Author Bio

Alasdair Fotheringham is a freelance journalist, and was the cycling correspondent for the Independent and the Independent on Sunday from 2001 to 2016. He has covered 24 Tours de France and 20 Tours of Spain, the Olympics in 2008 and 2012 and numerous other major bike races. He is also a regular contributor to Cyclingnews and ProCycling. His previous books are The Eagle of Toledo, a biography of Spains first Tour de France winner Federico Martn Bahamontes, and Reckless: The Life and Times of Luis Ocaa.