UNTIL May this year, the Festina affair had been the most damning indictment of professional cycling’s inability to clean up its act. Now Operaçion Puerto has superseded the scandals of 1998.

The origins of the Spanish doping investigation can be traced back to Jesus Manzano, the now-retired Spanish rider, who, after riding for the Kelme team, alleged that he had been repeatedly doped by team staff and also that blood transfusions had become common practice.

In February, the Guardi Civil learnt of an alleged blood doping ring, servicing elite athletes. Police surveillance revealed the existence of a clandestine laboratory in apartments in the suburbs of Madrid and also in Zaragoza.

On May 23, five people, including Manolo Saiz, one of the most revered and experienced directeur sportifs in cycling, were taken into custody and interviewed.

Alongside Saiz, at that time manager of the Liberty Seguros team, was Eufemanio Fuentes, a sports doctor who had been the medical man for the Kelme team.

According to reports in the Spanish media, now substantiated both by the Guardia Civil and Interior Ministry, police raids subsequently revealed substantial batches of blood and documents that revealed a vast doping ring.

By the middle of last month, Saiz had resigned from his post and Ivano Basso and Jan Ullrich were being drawn into the mire of allegations around Fuentes and his activities. In all 58 riders were said to be involved, with approximately 20 of those scheduled to ride in the 2006 Tour.

Last weekend, the Spanish national championships were abandoned after a rider protest that followed the publication of further allegations in El Pais newspaper. Now it would appear that any further protests are unlikely.

Operaçion Puerto was wholly a police operation that had no connection with the International Cycling Union and was governed by judicial schedules. This was bad news for the Tour de France organisation, which, as the start of the 2006 race loomed, grew increasingly desperate to avoid the debacle of 1998.

On that occasion, the race organisers’ refusal to take seriously allegations of systematic doping led to mid-race police raids, sit-down protests and even a Spanish media walk-out.

Early yesterday, less than 24 hours before the prologue time-trial, and under pressure from the Tour organisation and the French Ministry for Sports, the names of those involved were finally given to the Tour’s management, and action to enforce rider withdrawals was taken.

Fuentes, whose name has long been tainted by rumours within Spanish cycling, was the doctor at the centre of the allegations made by Manzano and is expected to be charged under public health law.

Explore More Sport

• Athletics

• Boxing

• Cycling

• Sailing

• US Sport