The 2018 Tour de France starts on Saturday in Noirmoutier. The 105th edition of the event hasn't even started yet and it has already been plagued by allegations of doping. Four-time winner and defending champion Chris Froome has just been cleared of any wrongdoing by cycling's world governing body and the four-time Tour de France winner will be free to lead Team Sky this year.
The following infographic takes a look at the 20-year fight against doping in the Tour de France and it shows the share of riders involved in doping cases since 1998 and the famous Festina affair. The data comes from archive work from Stéphane Huby which was compiled on website cyclisme-dopage.com.
In 1998, over half the riders competing in the Tour de France were involved in doping cases. Following the Festina affair, the World Anti-Doping Agency, also known as WADA, was established. This brought about a decline in the number of riders involved ind doping cases, though notable cases such as Lance Armstrong (1999), Floyd Landis (2006) and Alberto Contador (2010) continued to blight the competition after 2000. After 2015, the share of competitors doping dropped below 10 percent and last year, it stood at 8.6 percent.
Tour de France: The 20-Year Fight Against Doping
Doping
Description
This chart shows Tour de France cyclists involved in doping cases from 1998 to 2017 ( % of participants)*
