Cheats in colour

Massacre à la Chaine: Willy Voet. Editions Calmann-Lévy 1999. 222 pages paperback.ISBN 2-290-30062-4

The original of Voet's book differs from the English translation. It contains eight pages of colour photos, seven of them pages from Voet's records, with riders' names and the dates when they received their various injections, each entry colour-coded in high-lighter to differentiate between EPO and a range of growth hormones. Richard 'M. Propre' Virenque's records 90 entries, an A4 page, for 1996. Another shows a centrifuge and one of Voet's home-made condom-and-plastic-tube devices for rectal concealment of 'clean' urine. Faux pubic hair (from a rug) is stuck to the tube the better to conceal it. Not a pretty sight, but success in sport demands extraordinary sacrifices – so you'll just have to look at it like the rest of us.

It also contains the real names of riders (not 'a certain rider') and is specific about dates, places and events about which the English version is vague, and in which some paragraphs are omitted.

If you can read French, or even 'Virenque', 'Dufaux' and 'Stephens', and you happen to see it in a French or Belgian bookshop, it might make an interesting addition to your collection of drug-related memoirs.

Ramin Minovi