Breaking the Chain

The publishing of Breaking the Chain must surely rub salt into cycling's ugly wounds. The sport is still reeling from the explosion of controversy that was sparked by the arrest of Team Festina backroom staff member Willy Voet and his cargo of narcotics, on the Franco-Belgian border on July 8, 1998. The subsequent police investigation uncovered a drugs scandal that destroyed that year's Tour de France but Voet sensationally claims in Breaking The Chain, endemic cheating has been at the heart of the sport for years.

Voet's role as team "pharmacist"--ferrying and administering the cocktails of performance-enhancing drugs--made him the invisible hand that shaped the fortunes of one of the sport's most successful teams and he spares little detail in relating how it was done. Step-by-step guides to the business of "charging" on amphetamines and testosterone, administering mid-race injections and the secrets of beating the dope tests, are revealed for the first time.

.You slip the part of the tube fitted with the condom up the backside, inject clean urine up the tube ... cork it and stick it to the skin following the line of the perineum as far as the testicles ... this system was never bettered ... I used it for three years without any worries.

This is an astonishing story and Voet's is an amusing, candid voice--strong on the thrills of cheating and on the horrors of being caught--but given the ongoing investigations, and that fact the Voet, along with other senior members of the Festina team, is living under the cloud of a suspended prison sentence, it is hard to gauge whether the author's version of events has itself been "doctored". He names specific individuals related to the Festina case but protects the identities of other cheats that he claims operated on the pro circuit and it remains to be seen whether the full story of the scandal has now been told. --Alex Hankin

View other editions of Breaking the Chain.
View books by Willy Voet.

Badly written, but still interesting! - Rated
I'm not a cyclist and never have been. I have watched the Tour De France for years though, amazed at the strength and stamina of the riders. Now I know how many of them have done it - through the comprehensive and systematic use of a huge range of drugs.

This book is written by a masseur who worked with many top teams and riders for years and was heavily involved in the drug culture in professional cycling.

It's badly written and it's hard to follow in places. I guess if you know your cycling history and names, it would be easier. But it is also full of stories and anecdotes about drug taking, told in such a casual way that makes it both shocking and fascinating for anyone interested in sport.

The writer tries hard to elicit your sympathy for the fact he got caught and had little choice but to own up. He is angry with others in the sport whom he helped cheat, for abandoning him. Yet I felt no sympathy for him whatsoever. It's clear that getting caught was the only thing that stopped him being there today doing the same thing.

The sheer scale of the cheating is what made this an interesting read. It leaves you wondering if every rider or every sportsperson for that matter is a cheat. For me it reaffirms the need to leave no stone unturned in ridding sport of drugs.

I need to know that Lance Armstrong is naturally as remarkable a sports man as he appears, so that you can continue to marvel at what is possible.

Willy Voet - Rated
If you can read some french get the original and a dictionary.
I read it when it fisrt came out, in between watching the tdf in the alps, which gave it more impact.

yes its not written brilliantly, but reads more like the man telling his story, rather than trying to make it into a hollywood movie!

it incriminates some very famous cyclists and makes you wonder to what level doping is currently happening in sport.

recommended to anyone interested in cycling/ athletics etc.

A strangely unengaging experience - Rated
Willy Voet was most definitely not born to be a writer. The book has - of course - been translated into English, but even after making the necessary allowances it is still poorly structured and very poorly written. I really wanted to feel sympathy for this man but his literary style - I would describe it as "blow the whistle and run" - makes it near to impossible.
Read it on a train...

Shocking but a great read. - Rated
Willy Voet worked for many years as a soigneur for some of the world's top professional road racing teams. A soigneur is a person who takes care of other people and that is just what Willy did. Making sure that everyone had the right food, massage regime and drugs.

In 1998, he was arrested as he entered France with the supply of drugs to be used by the Festina team in that year's Tour de France. At first, the French thought that they had picked up another drug dealer bringing back supplies from the Netherlands but when they realised the true significance of their find, the consequences for the tour were severe.

The 1998 tour was almost scrapped and serious damage was done to the reputation of the event, the teams and cyclists. Voet himself was briefly imprisoned and then kicked out of the sport which was quite prepared to sacrifice him as a single rotten apple. That led directly to this book in which Voet tells of his own experiences of the drug taking within the world of professional cycling.

The scope of those revelations is shocking indeed. Not just the fact that drug taking occurred but the degree to which it spread across the whole sport and the lengths to which teams went to ensure that riders had the best set of drugs for their individual needs and the measures taken to prevent the riders from testing positive for banned substances. If you want to know exactly how to give a sample of somebody else's urine when stripped and made to give that sample in the presence of a doctor, read here.

The book has it's lighter moments too. The rider caught because the mechanic, who had provided the specimen that the rider later produced, had been taking amphetamines. Another rider who was prepared to buy a dose of rocket fuel, contents unknown, from a stranger who promised that he could win a stage.

Voet's motivation in writing this book is, at least in part, to justify himself by explaining that he did nothing that was not common practice throughout the sport. As such, some will doubt his veracity but he does not mince his words. He names names and gives considerable detail and yet nobody is queuing up to sue him for defamation.

The book does not pretend to be a far reaching survey or to tell the whole story. The author simply writes about his personal involvement in and knowledge of the field. William Fotheringham's translation is very good indeed. He writes fluidly and clearly understands what he is working on. Together, the two men have produced a fascinating book which is really an essential read for anyone interested in cycling or the effects of drugs on sport in general.

Shocking, Depressing, Gripping - Rated
Willy Voet's book tells two stories: the run-up to and events surrounding his arrest just before the 1998, interspersed with anecdotes from 30 years of bike racing. The former is fairly well-known, but the latter opens your eyes to the practices apparently endemic in the European peloton.

He describes personally "charging" as a junior so that he would race well in front of his family, and goes on to describe many of the tricks used to outwit the doping controls. Some of these tricks were sneaky, some sound painful, and some just depended on the laissez-faire attitude of the authorities. He goes on to ask how these can be the same authorities who now claim to be trying to clean up the sport.

He does name names, although in a matter-of-fact way (as they were merely the riders he was responsible for) rather than in a shock-horror-exposé way.

Cycling journalist William Fotheringham's translation is excellent, although he has had to shy away from some names, I presume for legal reasons. If your French is good enough, buy the original version from www.amazon.fr and read it directly after the English one.