1.   No valid tests exist for detecting HGH and EPO, banned drugs which are believed to be the doping products of choice among many athletes.

2.   Ryckaert has admitted the use of banned doping products at Festina, though its star rider, Richard Virenque, continues to deny that he knowingly took such substances.

3.   Tests for the banned endurance booster EPO, a major doping product in endurance sports, all turned up negative too.

4.   The star climber broke down during the dramatic fall trial and admitted to taking doping products.

5.   Top cyclist Richard Virenque is accused of distributing banned doping products in a book by former Festina physiotherapist Willy Voet which was published Tuesday.

6.   Tour organizers threw the Festina-sponsored team out of the race after revelations that it was using banned doping products.

7.   Voet and Ryckaert both recognize the use of banned doping products at Festina, but Virenque still denies he knowingly took such substances.

8.   He admitted supplying doping products to Italian cyclists Antonio Varriale and Filippo Perfetto of the Panaria team and Domenico Romano of the Landbouwkrediet stable.

9.   According to Boyon, far too many riders had been using medicines which have been prescribed by doctors but which are classed as doping products by several sports bodies.

10.   According to the Belga news agency the doping product was contained in a nasal spray used by the player regularly because of headaches suffered because of a fractured nose.