Evidence of the synthetic blood-booster erythropoietin (EPO) was found in the systems of eight of the nine Festina riders thrown off the Tour de France in July, including the four-times King of the Mountains Richard Virenque, results of a police inquiry in Lille will show today.

Four of the nine also had amphetamines in their blood, including Christophe Moreau - the only one whose EPO result was "inconclusive", although he has already confessed to using the hormone and is currently serving a ban for taking steroids.

Virenque, the Tour runner-up in 1997, the 1997 world champion Laurent Brochard and Pascal Herve will today hear from Judge Patrick Keil the results of the investigation started when a Festina car containing a large supply of banned drugs was stopped on the Franco-Belgian border in July.

A source authorised by the police inquiry yesterday revealed that Virenque and Herve, who have always denied knowingly using banned drugs, had blood counts indicating synthetic EPO. Five of the nine would have failed the UCI tests by which riders are removed from races for their own safety.

The four riders believed to have shown traces of amphetamines are Moreau, Herve, Brochard and Didier Rous.

The test results of blood, hair and urine samples have taken four months to arrive from Toxlab, an independent laboratory in Paris.