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BACKGROUND: Doping cases at the Tour de France

Sep 30, 2010, 16:57 GMT

Berlin - Reigning champion Alberto Contador of Spain on Thursday was named as the latest rider to fail a doping test at the Tour de France.

Following is a list of major doping issues at the French race before Contador's positive test for the forbidden substance clenbuterol on the 2010 Tour's second rest day, July 21.

1967: British rider Tom Simpson dies on the ascent of the Mont Ventoux in sweltering heat of a lethal mix of amphetamines and alcohol.

1996: Bjarne Riis wins the Tour de France and admits in 2007 that he used the forbidden blood booster EPO and other doping substances at the time. His then Telekom team-mates Erik Zabel and Rolf Aldag also admit to doping at that race.

1998: In the biggest Tour de France doping scandal, forbidden substances are found in a Festina team car on the French-Belgian border. The team is later expelled, director Bruno Roussel and doctor Eric Ryckaert placed under investigation. Other teams pull out as only 97 riders of 198 starters arrive in Paris.

1999: Lance Armstrong wins the first of a record seven Tour titles. Six years later French sports paper L'Equipe says that retests revealed he tested positive for EPO in that year. However, Armstrong is later not found guilty.

2003: Danilo Di Luca of Italy, Briton David Millar and Cedric Vasseur of France are banned from the Tour over doping allegations.

2006: Nine riders, including fancied Jan Ullrich and Ivan Basso, are expelled days before the Tour after being mentioned in connection with a Spanish doping probe. Tour champion Floyd Landis tests positive for testosterone and is later stripped of his title, with Oscar Pereiro of Spain named winner. German investigations reveal later that Patrick Sinkewitz and possibly other T-Mobile riders planned blood doping at Freiburg university clinic during the Tour.

2007: Alexandre Vinokourov of Kazakhstan tests positive for blood doping after winning a time trial and his Astana team leaves the Tour. Astana are then not invited to the 2008 edition. Spain's Iban Mayo tests positive for EPO and overall leader Michael Rasmussen is sacked by his Rabobank team and has to quit the race for lying over his whereabouts in training.

2008: French anti-doping authorities are in charge of drug testing due to differences between the UCI and race organizers. Astana and world champion Tom Boonen are denied participation. Manuel Beltran and Moises Duenas Nevado of Spain, Italy's Riccardo Ricco and Kazakh Dimitri Fofonow fail doping tests. Stefan Schumacher of Germany and third-place finisher Bernhard Kohl of Austria are caught in retests using the latest generation of EPO, named CERA.