The question of whether France's best-known cyclist, Richard Virenque, took banned drugs has been hotly debated for the past week. On Wednesday the former Festina team masseur, Willy Voet, described Virenque's assertions that he did not take drugs as "incredible", and said he took the red blood-cell booster erythropoietin (EPO) 90-100 times a year.

Voet's comments make it even less likely that Virenque will find a team for next year; it was revealed yesterday that the two Italian teams with whom he was in talks had pulled out, and no other major squads have publicly expressed interest in him.

On Tuesday, Virenque and his team-mate, Pascal Herve, maintained their denials when the magistrate investigating the affair presented them with scientific evidence that they had been given EPO. Herve has told his lawyer to sue over Voet's comment that he and Virenque were "the two biggest consumers of drugs in the team".

Voet was the personal masseur to the four-time winner of the King of the Mountains at the Tour de France for six years, and was the man caught by French customs ferrying EPO to the Tour de France start in July. Since his former proteges accused him of selling drugs to other teams, he has been only too ready to talk publicly.

Meanwhile, in Reims, a magistrate investigating the Tour de France doping scandal yesterday questioned seven riders from Dutch team TVM about tests revealing massive drug taking. Dutchmen Jeroen Blijlevens, Bart Voskamp, Servais Knaven, Tristan Hoffmann, Ukraine's Sergei Outschakov plus Belgium's Peter Van Petegem and Hendrick Van Dijck have all denied taking banned products.

But tests performed during the Tour, when police took the whole team to a hospital in Albertville, revealed traces of several illegal substances in their blood, urine and hair.

"All the riders took corticoids, steroids and growth hormone," a police source said earlier this month. "Four at least took erythropoietin (EPO), three others took amphetamines. "Another team rider took cannabis."

The results of the tests allowed judge Odile Madrolle to launch a formal investigation since no TVM rider has admitted taking drugs.

Illegal substances were also found in the team's hotel in Albertville when it was raided by the police.

Team doctor Andrei Mkhailov is currently jailed near Reims, while team director Cees Priem and masseur Jan Moors are under police watch and cannot leave the Reims region.