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This year's Tour de France will be the most scrutinised sports event yet by anti-doping authorities, International Cycling Union president Pat McQuaid said this month.

Here are some details of major doping scandals in the Tour since 1998:

1998

- Festina medical team member Willy Voet was arrested at the French border before the start of the Tour after customs officers seized banned substances, including the blood-boosting drug EPO.

- Festina were kicked out of the race and their riders later admitted to taking performance-enhancing drugs. Top rider Richard Virenque was banned for nine months, team director Bruno Roussel and Voet were fined and given suspended jail sentences.

2002

- The wife of Lithuanian rider Raimondas Rumsas was arrested after French police found doping substances in the boot of her car. Edita Rumsas said the stock was for her sick mother.

- Rumsas, who finished third in the Tour, denied his wife obtained doping products for him and that he ever took any.

2006

- American Floyd Landis became the first Tour winner to fail a drugs test during the race after testing positive for the male sex hormone testosterone. Landis, who denied using performance-enhancing drugs, was stripped of the title and given a two-year ban which ended on January 30, 2009.

- Germany's 1997 Tour winner Jan Ullrich and Giro d'Italia champion Ivan Basso were among nine competitors withdrawn on the eve of the prologue after being implicated in a Spanish doping investigation, Operation Puerto.

- Ullrich, who denied taking banned substances, was subsequently sacked by his T-Mobile team and retired from competition in February 2007. DNA tests confirmed that some of the bags of blood seized in Operation Puerto belonged to Ullrich, the Bonn state prosecutor's office said in April although the rider's lawyers questioned the results of the test.

- Basso admitted his involvement in the scandal to the Italian Olympic Committee in May 2007 and was banned for two years.

2007

- Pre-race favourite Alexander Vinokourov tested positive for blood doping after winning a time trial on July 21. The Kazakh's Astana team left the Tour and confirmed they had sacked Vinokourov, who denied any wrongdoing. Earlier this month Vinokourov had his ban increased to two years by the Court of Arbitration for Sport.

- The Cofidis team also pulled out of the race following Italian Cristian Moreni's positive test for testosterone. Moreni was suspended for two years.

- Tour leader Michael Rasmussen was sacked by his Rabobank team during the race for lying about his whereabouts during training. He was later banned for two years by the Monaco Cycling Federation for violating anti-doping rules.

- German Patrik Sinkewitz was suspended after a test taken in June was positive for elevated levels of testosterone. Sinkewitz had pulled out of the Tour with a broken nose and a shoulder injury following a crash with a spectator after the eighth stage.

- Spanish rider Iban Mayo, who finished the race in 16th place, was suspended by his team Saunier Duval after cycling's governing body confirmed traces of EPO in a sample taken on the July 24 rest day.

2008

- Italian Riccardo Ricco was kicked out of the race after failing a test for the new generation of EPO called CERA. Saunier Duval announced on July 24 they were withdrawing their sponsorship of the team.

- Austrian Bernhard Kohl, third overall and the race's top climber, as well as Italian Leonardo Piepoli and German Stefan Schumacher were also found guilty of using CERA following retroactive tests.

- Kazakh Dmitriy Fofonov tested positive for the banned stimulant heptaminol after the 18th stage and was fired by his Credit Agricole team. Spaniards Manuel Beltran and Moises Duenas Nevado tested positive for EPO. Barloworld ended sponsorship of their team after Nevado's test result.

Reuters