Tour de France 2025. Festina Affair: "We're going to take care of Chirac's protégé," Richard Virenque claims to have been the victim of a political coup by the left.
In an interview with Ouest France , Richard Virenque believes he was the victim of a political coup by the left, during his period of cohabitation with Jacques Chirac, when the Festina affair broke out during the 1998 Tour de France.
Richard Virenque during the 2004 Tour de France, wearing the polka dot jersey. Photo archive Le DL/Sylvain Muscio
On July 8, 1998, at 5:40 a.m., Willy Voet, the carer in the Festina case, was arrested by customs with the trunk of his car full of performance-enhancing drugs (EPO, amphetamines, growth hormone, testosterone, corticosteroids).
This was the beginning of an affair that would lead to the exclusion of the Festina team of Richard Virenque, the darling of the French and favorite for the final victory, from the 1998 Tour de France on July 17, the day of the Brive - Montauban stage.
"They blamed everything on me."Twenty-seven years later, the seven-time winner of the polka dot jersey still hasn't digested it. Second in 1997 , Richard Virenque believes in an interview with Ouest France that he was used as a scapegoat.
" When the Festina affair happened, when we saw what happened after, all the years after, it was clear proof that it was the cycling affair in general that was sick and despite everything, they put everything on my back and I had to pay dearly for all that."
Notably with an eleven-month suspension which caused him to miss the 2000 Tour.
In his interview with Ouest France , Richard Virenque also denounced having been the victim of a political coup by the left, which had led the government since 1997 under the presidency of Jacques Chirac, during the third cohabitation.
"We were popular, we were popular, we existed. And we caused a lot of trouble. And I also remind you politically what we represented, what I represented. In 1997, I came second in the Tour. Bernadette and Jacques Chirac were fans of Richard Virenque. Jacques Chirac asked ASO, for 1998, to have a stage in Corrèze, because that was the year I was going to win the Tour. But in September 1997, the left came to power and I was considered a pro-Chirac. And the Festina affair started. Politically, what do we do? We're going to take care of Chirac's protégé... And where did they come to arrest us? In Corrèze... The Festina affair started two days before the Tour de France but they waited a week until we were at Chirac's house, in his village, to remove me from the Tour."
Excluded from the 1998 Tour de France with his teammates, Richard Virenque admitted to doping and was sued for complicity in inciting doping during a trial held in December 2000, at the end of which he was acquitted.
Le Dauphiné libéré
