1977 Tour de France - Doping Cases

Doping Cases

Every day, five cyclists were tested for doping: the leader in the general classification, the winner of the stage, the runner-up of the stage, and two randomly selected cyclists, for a total of 110 tests. Six cyclists tested positive for doping:

• Joop Zoetemelk (Pemoline in the 15th stage)
• Sebastien Pozo (Pemoline in the 16th stage)
• Antonio Menendez (Pemoline in the 17th and 18th stage)
• Joaquim Agostinho (Pemoline in the 18th stage)
• Fernando Mendes (Pemoline in the 18th stage)
• Luis Ocaña (Pemoline in the 18th stage)

Sebastien Pozo was unable to provide urine within two hours for the doping control after the prologue, which is treated as a positive result.

All were fined with 1000 Swiss Francs, received one month of provisional suspension, were set back to the last place in the stage and penalized with 10 minutes in the general classification.

Directly after the Tour, there were rumours about Thevenet and Kuiper having used doping. The Tour officials came together, and made a statement that Thevenet was officially the winner of the Tour. Some months later, when Thevenet was in hospital, he admitted having used cortisone. His popularity plunged after that, and Thevenet was never again able to compete for the general classification.