List of Doping Cases in Cycling - 1990s - 1999

1999

• Uwe Ampler tested positive for steroids and high testosterone level during the Sachsen Tour in August 1999. He admitted his error, blaming a cocktail of drugs taken during a bout of influenza.

• Frankie Andreu admitted in September 2006 that he had taken EPO to help prepare for the 1999 Tour de France, when he was riding for the US Postal team.

• Lance Armstrong tested positive for corticoids during the 1999 Tour de France. The small amounts of corticoids in a urine sample were explained by the prescription for skin cream (saddle sores / boil / allergy) that he subsequently presented to the UCI, thus he was cleared of any offence. He later admitted that saddle sores were a cover story for actually doping.

• Ludo Dierckxsens was removed from the Tour de France by his Lampre team after winning the 11th stage. At the post race drugs test he told the race doctor about his use of the corticoid Synacthene (Tetracosactide) under prescription to treat a knee injury from the previous month.

• Claus Michael Møller of the Dutch TVM team tested positive for banned substances and received a 2 year ban

• Marco Pantani, winner of the 1998 Giro d'Italia and the Tour de France, faced an automatic two-week suspension while leading the 1999 Giro d'Italia for a suspiciously high red blood cell count (52%) which could have meant that the rider had taken the banned substance EPO. He died of a cocaine overdose in 2004.

• Laurent Roux is a French former road bicycle racer. In 1999, he was found guilty of using amphetamines and was suspended for six months. In 2002, he was tested non-negative for amphetamines after an out of competition control. In 2006 he also confessed at a doping trial in Bordeaux that he used EPO, human growth hormone, cortisone and testosterone.

1999 Tour de France - In 2005 the French sports daily L'Équipe accused Lance Armstrong of using the performance-enhancing drug EPO during 1999 Tour de France. For years, it had been impossible to detect the drug, called erythropoietin, until UCI began using a urine test for EPO in 2001. According to the newspaper, tests on 1999 urine samples were done to help scientists improve their detection methods. The newspaper said 12 samples had revealed EPO use, including six from Armstrong. In 2006 a UCI appointed independent lawyer, Emile Vrijman, released a report in 2006 claiming that Lance Armstrong should be cleared of any suspicion surrounding the retrospective testing of the 1999 Tour de France. Vrijman denounced the manner in which the doping laboratory in Châtenay-Malabry carried out its research, claiming that there were too many procedural and chain of custody gaps. The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) rejected it, calling it defamatory to WADA and its officers and employees, as well as the accredited laboratory involved. In January 2013, Armstrong admitted doping in an interview with Oprah Winfrey

In 2005, French daily 'Le Journal du Dimanche' reported that Spanish rider Manuel Beltrán, Danish Bo Hamburger and Colombian Joaquim Castelblanco were suspected of being among those whose frozen urine samples reportedly tested positive.