Christophe Bassons
Encyclopedia
Christophe BassonsChristophe Bassons (born on 10 June 1974, Mazamet
, France
)
is a French former professional road racing cyclist whose career ended when he spoke out about doping
in the Tour de France.
. He began cycle-racing in 1991 in mountain biking. He started racing on the road in 1992 and won the Tour du Tarn et Garonne in 1995. That same year he won the world military time-trial championship and became national time-trial champion. He turned professional in 1996 for Force Sud and then, when the team failed, for Festina
, a watch and clock maker.
, when the discovery of a carload of drugs being driven to the team's riders in the Tour de France
led to evidence that doping was widespread in the team. In September 1998, the newspaper France Soir
published statements made to the police. Two riders, Armin Meier and Christophe Moreau
, said Bassons was the only rider in the team not taking drugs.
Jean-Luc Gatellier said in L'Équipe
:
Moreau's and Meier's court statement brought attention to a rider who had never acquired it through his racing. He wrote in Vélo, a French monthly, that riders who spoke out against quarterly medical checks imposed by the sports ministry after the Festina trial were hypocrites. He said: "That makes me laugh when I hear they're asking for changes to the tests. The truth, however, is that they are obliged to change their behaviour. They talk about 'two-speed cycling' But me, for three years, I've been the second speed. They have ruined three years of my life as a racer and I never said anything."
The interest that the Festina trial brought to him led to an invitation to write a column during the 1999 Tour for Le Parisien
, a newspaper in the same corporate group as the Tour de France itself. Ian Austen wrote in Procycling
:
Bassons said Armstrong rode up alongside on the Alpe d'Huez
stage to tell him "it was a mistake to speak out the way I do and he asked why I was doing it. I told him that I'm thinking of the next generation of riders. Then he said 'Why don't you leave, then?'" Armstrong confirmed the story. On the main evening news on TF1, a national television station, Armstrong said: "His accusations aren't good for cycling, for his team, for me, for anybody. If he thinks cycling works like that, he's wrong and he would be better off going home."
Bassons was shunned by other riders. Giving a television interview at St-Étienne, he said, a passing rider in his own team said: "Watch what you say!"
Bassons said: "I started feeling isolated. In the middle of 170 riders, that's a tough way to live." Riders shunned him or at best nodded. He cracked, saying he had not wanted to leave the race but his nerves could not stand it anymore. He said:
The reporter Jean-Michel Rouet wrote:
The sports minister, Marie-George Buffet
, said: "What a strange role reversal. Rather than fighting against doping, they're fighting its opponent." She wrote to him to sympathise, saying that it was time someone spoke out.
Bassons' colleagues in the team refused to share their prizes with him. Normally teams pool their winnings and share them out by the number of days a rider has survived the race. One rider, Xavier Jan, said: "Christophe Bassons rode only for himself and didn't at any time work for the overall good of the team." It had nothing to do with his comments about doping, he said. Thierry Bourguignon, part of another team but earlier a member with Bassons of Force Sud, confirmed: "I was the only one to talk to Bassons... He doesn't listen to anyone. Bassons is an individualist. Even in a race he doesn't easily lend a hand. He rides for himself."
Bassons raced again, riding in Germany
and Belgium
. He said: "I felt a lot of tension. Some didn't talk to me. Others pretended nothing had happened, which is worse. Some say it's just youthful folly, but I feel more adult than them. I'm not the only clean rider but there aren't many who can say 'I don't take drugs'. For most riders, their health is the last of their concerns."
He moved to a smaller team, Jean Delatour, and then stopped racing.
Mazamet
Mazamet is a commune in the Tarn department in southern France.It is the second-largest component of the Castres-Mazamet metropolitan area.-Geography:...
, France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
)
is a French former professional road racing cyclist whose career ended when he spoke out about doping
Doping (sport)
The use of performance-enhancing drugs in sport is commonly referred to by the term "doping", particularly by those organizations that regulate competitions. The use of performance enhancing drugs is mostly done to improve athletic performance. This is why many sports ban the use of performance...
in the Tour de France.
Origins
Christophe Bassons was born in Mazamet, in the Tarn department. He studied and qualified in civil engineeringCivil engineering
Civil engineering is a professional engineering discipline that deals with the design, construction, and maintenance of the physical and naturally built environment, including works like roads, bridges, canals, dams, and buildings...
. He began cycle-racing in 1991 in mountain biking. He started racing on the road in 1992 and won the Tour du Tarn et Garonne in 1995. That same year he won the world military time-trial championship and became national time-trial champion. He turned professional in 1996 for Force Sud and then, when the team failed, for Festina
Festina
thumb|right|Festina watchesFestina is a watch company. It was founded in 1902 in La Chaux-de-Fonds, Switzerland.The manufacture's motto was Festina Lente . In 1984, Spanish industrialist Miguel Rodriguez, already owner of Lotus watches bought Festina and created the group Festina Lotus S.A....
, a watch and clock maker.
Doping
Bassons became known during the 1998 doping Festina scandalFestina affair
The Festina Affair refers to the events that surrounded several doping scandals, doping investigations and confessions by riders to doping that occurred during and after the 1998 Tour de France. The affair began when a large haul of doping products was found in a car of the Festina cycling team...
, when the discovery of a carload of drugs being driven to the team's riders in the Tour de France
Tour de France
The Tour de France is an annual bicycle race held in France and nearby countries. First staged in 1903, the race covers more than and lasts three weeks. As the best known and most prestigious of cycling's three "Grand Tours", the Tour de France attracts riders and teams from around the world. The...
led to evidence that doping was widespread in the team. In September 1998, the newspaper France Soir
France Soir
France Soir is a French daily newspaper that prospered during the 1950s and 1960s, but it has declined since then under various owners. It was re-launched as a populist tabloid in 2006.-History:...
published statements made to the police. Two riders, Armin Meier and Christophe Moreau
Christophe Moreau
Christophe Moreau is a French former professional road racing cyclist. For many years Moreau was the primary French contender for the general classification in the Tour de France: he finished in the top 12 in the GC five times and finished the race as best Frenchman in 2000, 2003, 2004 and 2005...
, said Bassons was the only rider in the team not taking drugs.
Jean-Luc Gatellier said in L'Équipe
L'Équipe
L'Équipe is a French nationwide daily newspaper devoted to sports, owned by Éditions Philippe Amaury. The paper is noted for coverage of football , rugby, motorsports and cycling...
:
- It's true he's not one of them and he hasn't come out of the same mould. It's true that he refused to 'load the canon' (the pretty expression used by those who take EPOErythropoietinErythropoietin, or its alternatives erythropoetin or erthropoyetin or EPO, is a glycoprotein hormone that controls erythropoiesis, or red blood cell production...
) these past years, it's true that Christophe Bassons doesn't belong to the family of cheats and the corrupted.
Moreau's and Meier's court statement brought attention to a rider who had never acquired it through his racing. He wrote in Vélo, a French monthly, that riders who spoke out against quarterly medical checks imposed by the sports ministry after the Festina trial were hypocrites. He said: "That makes me laugh when I hear they're asking for changes to the tests. The truth, however, is that they are obliged to change their behaviour. They talk about 'two-speed cycling' But me, for three years, I've been the second speed. They have ruined three years of my life as a racer and I never said anything."
The interest that the Festina trial brought to him led to an invitation to write a column during the 1999 Tour for Le Parisien
Le Parisien
Le Parisien is a French daily newspaper covering both international and national news, and local news of Paris and its suburbs. It was established as Le Parisien libéré by Émilien Amaury in 1944, and the name was changed to the current one in 1986...
, a newspaper in the same corporate group as the Tour de France itself. Ian Austen wrote in Procycling
Procycling
Procycling, or ProCycling, is a bicycling sport magazine owned by Future Publishing. First published in April 1999, there are 13 issues a year distributed in all countries where there are English speaking readers....
:
- On the whole his columns were largely innocuous if entertaining looks at life in the peloton. If anything, he sometimes went out of his way to dispel doping rumours. After the stage into BloisBloisBlois is the capital of Loir-et-Cher department in central France, situated on the banks of the lower river Loire between Orléans and Tours.-History:...
, which passed at record average speed, Bassons warned readers: 'Don't get any ideas about the record speed. With a wind like we had, it's normal to ride this fast.' But two columns stuck out. After Lance ArmstrongLance ArmstrongLance Edward Armstrong is an American former professional road racing cyclist who won the Tour de France a record seven consecutive times, after having survived testicular cancer. He is also the founder and chairman of the Lance Armstrong Foundation for cancer research and support...
showed that not only had he recovered from cancerCancerCancer , known medically as a malignant neoplasm, is a large group of different diseases, all involving unregulated cell growth. In cancer, cells divide and grow uncontrollably, forming malignant tumors, and invade nearby parts of the body. The cancer may also spread to more distant parts of the...
, he'd risen to the top of the pack, Bassons wrote that his performances had 'shocked' the pelotonPelotonThe peloton , field, bunch or pack is the large main group of riders in a road bicycle race. Riders in a group save energy by riding close near other riders...
.
Bassons said Armstrong rode up alongside on the Alpe d'Huez
Alpe d'Huez
L'Alpe d'Huez is a ski resort at . It is a mountain pasture in the Central French Alps, in the commune of Huez, in the Isère département in the Rhône-Alpes region.-Tour de France:L'Alpe d'Huez is one of the main mountains in the Tour de France...
stage to tell him "it was a mistake to speak out the way I do and he asked why I was doing it. I told him that I'm thinking of the next generation of riders. Then he said 'Why don't you leave, then?'" Armstrong confirmed the story. On the main evening news on TF1, a national television station, Armstrong said: "His accusations aren't good for cycling, for his team, for me, for anybody. If he thinks cycling works like that, he's wrong and he would be better off going home."
Bassons was shunned by other riders. Giving a television interview at St-Étienne, he said, a passing rider in his own team said: "Watch what you say!"
Bassons said: "I started feeling isolated. In the middle of 170 riders, that's a tough way to live." Riders shunned him or at best nodded. He cracked, saying he had not wanted to leave the race but his nerves could not stand it anymore. He said:
- The [team doctor] comforted me. We often talk together about the problem of doping and we share the same ideas. I confided in him and I cried a little [j'ai chialé]. I got to sleep but a bit after midnight I could no longer sleep because of my worries. I went into the corridor, I phoned my coach, Antoine Vayer, and Pascale, my wife. At 5.30am I had my breakfast and I packed my case. I crossed with Marc and he said I was letting down the team. He said a rider could leave the race if he cracked physically but he couldn't accept that one can crack mentally. I said goodbye to everyone but one rider didn't look at me and refused to shake my hand. That hurt.
The reporter Jean-Michel Rouet wrote:
- Sometimes he was congratulated on his courage, as Daniel Baal, the president of the FFC at the start at Sestrieres. But more often, others waved their fist [on le montrait le doigt], looked elsewhere, if they didn't just insult him. He has a few friends and a heap of enemies. His solitude was the living proof that nothing fundamental has changed in the morals of the milieu. Christophe Bassons died at the stake [est mort au bucher], burned by his passion. On official communiqués, he left two words: non partant. The peloton had already forgotten rider number 152.
The sports minister, Marie-George Buffet
Marie-George Buffet
Marie-George Buffet is a French politician. She was the head of the French Communist Party from 2001 to 2010. She joined the Party in 1969, and was the Minister of Youth Affairs and Sports from June 4, 1997 to May 5, 2002. Ms...
, said: "What a strange role reversal. Rather than fighting against doping, they're fighting its opponent." She wrote to him to sympathise, saying that it was time someone spoke out.
Bassons' colleagues in the team refused to share their prizes with him. Normally teams pool their winnings and share them out by the number of days a rider has survived the race. One rider, Xavier Jan, said: "Christophe Bassons rode only for himself and didn't at any time work for the overall good of the team." It had nothing to do with his comments about doping, he said. Thierry Bourguignon, part of another team but earlier a member with Bassons of Force Sud, confirmed: "I was the only one to talk to Bassons... He doesn't listen to anyone. Bassons is an individualist. Even in a race he doesn't easily lend a hand. He rides for himself."
Bassons raced again, riding in Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
and Belgium
Belgium
Belgium , officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a federal state in Western Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters, and those of several other major international organisations such as NATO.Belgium is also a member of, or affiliated to, many...
. He said: "I felt a lot of tension. Some didn't talk to me. Others pretended nothing had happened, which is worse. Some say it's just youthful folly, but I feel more adult than them. I'm not the only clean rider but there aren't many who can say 'I don't take drugs'. For most riders, their health is the last of their concerns."
He moved to a smaller team, Jean Delatour, and then stopped racing.