TIMELINE: Doping problems to hit major Tours

PARIS (Reuters) - Chronology of doping problems to hit cycling's major tours in recent years:

* 1998 Tour de France

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

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

* 1999 Giro d'Italia

Tour and Giro champion Marco Pantani of Italy is expelled while leading the race after failing a blood haematocrit test.

* 2001 Giro d'Italia

France's Pascal Herve is retired from the Giro by his Alexia team after failing a test for EPO. Mercatone Uno rider Riccardo Forconi does not start 17th stage after failing a dope test.

Police officers search the rooms of riders from all 20 teams, confiscating medicines. Organizers cancel the 18th stage when riders call a meeting to discuss the raids.

Second-placed Dario Frigo is sacked by Fassa Bortolo after illegal drugs are found in his room. Frigo later admits to carrying them as security in case he needed a boost during the final stages of the race.

An insulin syringe found in a room where Pantani stayed leads to a six-month ban for the Italian. Pantani dies of a cocaine overdose in 2004.

* 2002 Giro d'Italia

Italian Nicola Chesini is arrested by police after the fifth stage as part of a probe into the sale of performance-enhancing drugs.

Race favorite and 2000 winner Stefano Garzelli tests positive for the banned diuretic and masking agent probenecid and is expelled from the race. He is given a nine-month ban.

Gilberto Simoni, the 2001 winner, tests positive for cocaine. He is withdrawn from the Giro but is later cleared by the Italian Cycling Federation.

Italian Roberto Sgambelluri and Russian Faat Zakirov become the first professional cyclists to be caught using NESP (an improved form of EPO) and quit the Giro.