Pascal Hervé

French road cyclist Pascal Hervé became the national amateur champion in 1992 to earn himself a place on the Olympic team. Hervé then competed in the road race at the Barcelona Olympics where he came 48th in the main peloton of riders who finished 35 seconds behind the race winner. He turned professional in 1994, signing with Festina and winning the mountains classification at the Critérium du Dauphiné the same year. He continued to have good results on climbing stages, winning the mountains classification at the Volta a Catalunya in 1995 and the Volta a la Comunitat Valenciana in 1996. His biggest win came at that years’ Giro d’Italia when he won the mountain-top finish in Catanzaro on stage six.

A loyal team-mate of Richard Virenque, he was caught up in the infamous Festina affair doping scandal, which saw Hervé and the rest of the team being expelled from the 1998 Tour de France. He was suspended for two months and returned to racing shortly afterwards. He won stage four of the Tour de Suisse in 2000 but his career came to an end a year later after testing positive for EPO at the prologue stage at the 2001 Giro d’Italia. Hervé later moved to Canada where he lived until his death in Montréal in December 2024.