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Breaking the Chain: Drugs and Cycling - The True Story
Written by an author who is close to the centre of the sport, this book discusses the revelations claiming drug abuse amongst participants in the 1998 "Tour de France" and reveals how close the sport was to being totally destroyed.
- GenresCyclingSportsNonfiction
144 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1999
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Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews
June 24, 2019
This book is one about drugs, more than about cycling. Voet was a maseur working in pro cycling for more than 20 years, and he became good connoissuer of the insights of this sport. He assumed that making drugs avalilable for the cyclists was another aspect of his work, not very different from giving them a massage.
He was caught with a full load of drugs in 1998, giving rise to the known as Festina affaire, and spending himself a couple of weeks in jail. The next year Voet wrote this book to explain the public what is going on with cyclists and drugs.
On the literary level it's not a big book, but it well worth the read to every pro cycling fan. Voet manages to capture the culture of cheating, explaining many situations and a bunch of bad or good results. And he gives a lot of names, both of clean people and dopers (well, in fact there are more of the latter). Sometimes he doesn't write a name when he tells a story, but providing enough data you can know (or easily search on the Internet) whom he is refering to, and so you're able to fill the gaps.
No doubt, this is a fascinating read, fully current two decades later.
He was caught with a full load of drugs in 1998, giving rise to the known as Festina affaire, and spending himself a couple of weeks in jail. The next year Voet wrote this book to explain the public what is going on with cyclists and drugs.
On the literary level it's not a big book, but it well worth the read to every pro cycling fan. Voet manages to capture the culture of cheating, explaining many situations and a bunch of bad or good results. And he gives a lot of names, both of clean people and dopers (well, in fact there are more of the latter). Sometimes he doesn't write a name when he tells a story, but providing enough data you can know (or easily search on the Internet) whom he is refering to, and so you're able to fill the gaps.
No doubt, this is a fascinating read, fully current two decades later.
January 21, 2018
Having devoured several books on drugs in sports in general and cycling in particular, it was fascinating to see how deep the roots go. Voet is often vilified as a horrible cheat who was in the business of dragging cycling into the dirt, but what is clear is how long, and how extensive the networks of drug use extend(ed). It was clearly so commonplace to "charge" that anyone who claimed ignorance of it was almost certainly lying.
July 23, 2025
I’ve been looking to read this for a while and finally got around to it. I enjoyed this book and I really liked how it was written, hopping between the past and the the present. The present happens to be the aftermath of the Festina doping scandal. This book reminds me of ‘rough ride’ only the doping is more hardcore.
September 24, 2019
Books like this are difficult to rate. This book's not for everybody but I being a cycling fan found it interesting.
October 12, 2020
Drugs Drugs and more drugs. It was always thus!
March 19, 2017
Sobering and easy reading short account covering both Voet’s arrest and trial and his reminiscence of 20 years or more of drug taking in the sport (some of which anecdotes while giving heavy hints as to the rider don’t name them and also including drug taking among support staff e.g. for Paris Roubaix).
February 2, 2012
A compelling insight to the underworld of pro cycling and the journey young riders tread to the golden trail of tdf and subsequent shaming. These are the levels which certain riders take to achieve the grace, glory and recognition that others seek through honest means. Viva la tour, Lance once said; I say pray the honest rider comes through and ascends the challenges they face to gain ultimate glory! Willy Voet, outcast and alone blows the entire lid on what is still the greatest test of human endurance.......one day classics to the grand tours.
December 6, 2008
The maseur who was caught with a load of drugs going over the French border in 1998 and thus sparked what became known as the Festina affair. Willy was just doing what he knew, and it was well known that everyone was 'charging' in those days. It was fascinating to learn just how much of the job it was to pick up, inject and help riders get drugs into their systems. I just hope that a decade later we are getting closer to getting doping out of cycling - or a little ways down the road.
September 28, 2011
Willy Voet's arrest before the 1998 Tour de France set off a firestorm of doping revelations in the world of professional cycling. Voet's account is interesting and illuminating, even now, more than a decade after the fact. It's a very short book, but significantly Voet manages to capture the culture of cheating, which helps answer how doping got (and has remained) so out of control in the sport (and in sports in general).
April 16, 2007
A stripped-bare first hand account of the Festina affair written by one of the pawns who lost his livelihood because of his involvement. Yes, he was guilty of everything that he was charged with, but it is an amazing story of what really happened behind the scenes of a cycling team that dopes. This is a gripping story, and well worth the read if you have any interest in Pro Cycling.
February 16, 2008
A tell-all book by the soigneur of Festina -- yes, the same one who was busted in the 1998 Tour de France for driving across the French border with a car-load full of blood doping products for his team.
April 7, 2013
I chose this book as I have a keen interest in drugs I don't know anything about cycling so I struggled a little but persevered. the book set out the details of what was happening at the time which really is quite shocking yet also understanding from the athletes point of view.
September 6, 2014
Willy Voet's story is a good one although his stories feel like an endless list of anecdotes that he pieced together to pad out his book. That doesn't detract from the interest of his own story but it did spoil the read a little.
January 29, 2018
The translation isn't the greatest, but for anyone interested in doping in cycling before/aside from Lance Armstrong, this is eye popping. It also exposes a lot about the corruption and money in professional sport where the shit always rolls downhill.
March 7, 2007
The inside story on Drugs and cycling.
October 12, 2013
Très intéressant, autant quelques jours après son arrestation que quelques années dans le cyclisme, et le dopage...
July 8, 2012
Depressing.
Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews