Tour de France director Jean-Marie Leblanc appealed for calm last night as the drugs scandals dogging the race threatened to drag the event under.

Amid growing acrimony on a day when the riders twice went on strike, Leblanc said he understood their grievances but begged them to carry on for Sunday's Paris finale.

"We have all been deeply distressed as you yourselves have been to see how the riders have been treated," said Leblanc, referring to a wave of police interviews and searches of team hotels and vans.

Promising to do all he could to address their concerns, Leblanc said he understood the riders were feeling traumatised by the events of recent days but appealed to them to ensure the Tour "can continue in as dignified a fashion as possible.

"We totally understand that the riders feel traumatised and we think that after 18 days of competition these top level athletes deserve more dignified and more human treatment," said Leblanc.

"I can assure you that (police) hearings will be done in as dignified a fashion as possible - that is at the hotels of the teams concerned and not at police stations - as well as with the utmost discretion," Leblanc promised.

"We believe in our hearts that you, dear team sporting directors, and you riders, my friends, deserve to arrive on the Champs-Elysees on Sunday in triumph.

"We will do all we can to ensure that that happens, even if today we face an uncomprehending public," said an emotional Leblanc.

Judicial officials meanwhile insisted that TVM riders had been properly treated last night when they were required to give blood and urine samples at an Albertville hospital.

"They suffered no police brutality and were able to eat as much as they wished," said the Reims deputy public prosecutor Philippe Laumosne.

Following the banning almost a fortnight ago of the Festina team for doping, Dutch team TVM remain in the spotlight with a medical officer detained overnight, judicial sources earlier revealed.

The unnamed officer had his initial 48hour period of detention extended on the approval of the judge in charge of the doping dossier after an initial police interview.

Team head Cees Priem and team doctor Andrei Mihailov remain in custody after being arrested in Reims on Monday suspected of transporting noxious and dangerous substances.

The Big Mat Auber team yesterday had some 100 medical substances seized from a van during a routine customs check as the drugs dragnet widened still further.

Police in Lille said up to four former and current Festina riders would be questioned as inquiries continue into the Swiss outfit's affairs.

But last night the indications were that only team officials would be questioned, not riders.

The team's suspended head Bruno Roussel was released from custody on Tuesday after being held for questioning on doping allegations since July 17th.

Eric Ryckaert, Festina's Belgian doctor, who was like Roussel arrested and questioned, remains in custody at Douai.

The first sit down came at the 32 km mark, when riders abandoned their bicycles and refused to go on.

But they responded when Leblanc appealed for them to continue, only to strike again later in the stage before finally adopting a go-slow policy.

The French Minister of Sports called it " a day of very great sadness", writes Lara Marlowe from Paris, as doubts grow that the race which started in Dublin will make it to the Champs-Elysees on Sunday.