Background
Since the introduction of doping tests in 1964, many cyclists were caught in the Tour de France. In recent years, 1996 Tour de France winner Bjarne Riis and points classification winner Erik Zabel, along with most of their Team Telekom team-mates, confessed to using erythropoietin (EPO). In 1997, former points classification winner Djamolidine Abdoujaparov was disqualified from the Tour de France for doping use. In 1998, the Festina affair had several main contenders removed from the race. In the next years, several riders were removed from the Tour de France for doping (see List of doping cases in cycling).
In addition, several riders were not allowed to start the previous Tour, including Jan Ullrich and Ivan Basso because of their involvement in the Operación Puerto doping case, a Spanish investigation against doctor Eufemiano Fuentes and a number of accomplices accused of administering prohibited doping products to approximately two hundred professional athletes, to enhance their performance.
Subsequent to the completion of the 2006 Tour, testing of the winner Floyd Landis revealed an elevated testosterone to epitestosterone ratio on a sample taken following Stage 17 of the race and, at the time of the 2007 Tour prologue, the results of an independent arbitration hearing were still pending (he was later stripped of his 2006 Tour title in September 2007) and accordingly Landis was prevented from defending the title. (For more details, see Floyd Landis doping case.)
Read more about this topic: Doping At The 2007 Tour De France
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