The initial doping controversy foreshadowed the contested outcome of the 2006 Tour involving the race leader Floyd Landis who was found guilty of doping.

One reason the pressure has diminished, Armstrong said, is the absence in this 89th Tour of any doping controversy around him.

The Tour continued to be embroiled in doping controversies even after it finished.

One wrinkle might be that doping controversy.

Thanou claimed that she faced "intense pressure" to withdraw from the Beijing Olympics, four years after being involved in a major doping controversy at the Athens Games.

Riley continued to sweep all before her in 1995, but arrived for the Atlanta Olympics under the cloud of a doping controversy.

Despite his doping controversy Lynch competed in two Winter Olympics, earning his best finish of 13th at Sarajevo in 1984.

Shoaib Akhtar, the world's fastest bowler, and Mohammad Asif, a rising star, were also enmeshed in a doping controversy.

Other high-profile potential Tour riders were caught up in doping controversies.

The seeds of the story began in 1897, when Jimmy Michael was banned from racing in Britain due to a doping controversy.