449:(FFC) for having missed an antidoping test during the 2012 French national mountain bike championships. He had quit the race partway through, and by the time he heard he was one of the riders chosen for testing, it was too late to get back to the race site for the test. His suspension was reduced to one month on appeal. Bassons took the FFC to court and they found in his favour ruling that the governing body owed him compensation. The FFC appealed but the court did not find in their favour and they had to pay Bassons âŹ31,691 (ÂŁ28,440/$ 36,270) in compensation.
349:" . . . and then Lance Armstrong reached me. He grabbed my by the shoulder, because he knew that everyone would be watching, and he knew that at that moment, he could show everyone that he was the boss. He stopped me, and he said what I was saying wasn't true, what I was saying was bad for cycling, that I mustn't say it, that I had no right to be a professional cyclist, that I should quit cycling, that I should quit the tour, and finished by saying you. . . . I was depressed for 6 months. I was crying all of the time. I was in a really bad way." -
263:, 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."
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390:. But more often, others pointed at him , 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 , burned by his passion. On official communiqués, he left two words:
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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.
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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."
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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
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The comforted me. We often talk together about the problem of doping and we share the same ideas. I confided in him and I whined . 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.
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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
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chastised
Bassons for speaking as if "he is the only rider who is beyond reproach." Officials with his own team joined in on the condemnation, calling him a coward who only spoke to burnish his own image. Riders shunned him or at best nodded. He cracked, saying he had not wanted to leave the race
296:, a newspaper in the same corporate group as the Tour de France itself. Bassons wanted to write about the "suspicious" speeds he was seeing; the average speed at the 1999 Tour was 25.2 mph (40.6 km/h); no Tour had ever been run faster than 24.9 mph (40.1 km/h). As he later told
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Bassons said
Armstrong also asked him why he was speaking out; "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 French national television station, Armstrong said: "His
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in 2012 that he considered his career to be as a sports professor, not his six years of cycling. He also said that he was "not bitter" against
Armstrong, and was content with his situation, comparing it to what Armstrong was going through in the wake of the 2012 USADA report.
341:. Nobody had been talking to him. The entire peloton planned to ride slow for the first 100 km without telling him. Bassons only heard about this because a mechanic from his team told him. Bassons decided he was "fed up" and decided to ride ahead of the others (
325:, 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 Armstrong showed that not only had he recovered from
200:. 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
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publicly apologized for being part of the peloton that shunned him, saying that he (Tyler) was "100% wrong" not to talk to
Bassons. Bassons said "that's life, it's nothing. I don't begrudge Hamilton. I understand."
434:, "several guys tried to ride me into the ditch . . . it got dangerous, and I realized that it wasn't worth continuing". He ended his professional road racing career. In her book about the Armstrong doping scandal,
300:, "The 1999 Tour was supposed to be the "Tour of Renewal," but I was certain that doping had not disappeared." He was not the only rider concerned about how fast the 1999 Tour was going; fellow Frenchman
364:(after Stage 11), 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." Race director
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402:, 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.
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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 cannon' (the pretty expression used by those who take
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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."
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and in 2001 he qualified as a sports teacher and began teaching. He now works for the ministry of youth and sport at
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742:, 54:00, Mark Chapman, including interviews with Tyler Hamilton, Bassons, and others. BBC Radio 5 live, 2012 10 15, retr 2012 10 16
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345:). As they came to a flat spot, "all of the teams rode together to close me down". As the teams rode by him, they stared at him.
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Moreau's and Meier's court statement brought attention to a rider who had never acquired it through his racing. He wrote in
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Marc Madiot, manager of
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who rode for US Postal in 1997-98, told Bassons at one point, "This has got to stop! We can't go on racing like this!"
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report on Armstrong's US Postal Service team, some media re-told Bassons' story. In one interview for the BBC,
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255:) these past years, it's true that Christophe Bassons doesn't belong to the family of cheats and the corrupted.
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champion. He turned professional in 1996 for Force Sud and then, when the team failed, for
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don't take drugs'. For most riders, their health is the last of their concerns."
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835:(L'Equipe 17 July 1999, cited Sport & Vie n°6 de Sept/Oct 1999)
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274:(EPO). His stance against doping led other riders, most notably
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Mr Clean Christophe Bassons 'not bitter' towards Lance Armstrong
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published statements made to the police. Two convicted riders,
957:"Cyclisme : Christophe Bassons suspendu un mois en appel"
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582:"cyclisme-dopage.com - Portrait de Christophe Bassons"
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172:(born 10 June 1974) is a French former professional
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426:, but the mistreatment continued. In 2001 at
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176:. His career ended when he spoke out about
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706:Cycle of Lies: The Fall of Lance Armstrong
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548:Grand Prix d'Ouverture La Marseillaise
524:Grand Prix d'Ouverture La Marseillaise
378:The reporter Jean-Michel Rouet wrote:
955:Stéphane Mandard (21 December 2012).
620:"Lance Armstrong: the Whistleblowers"
351:Bassons, from BBC Radio 5, 2012 10 15
7:
1117:Sportspeople from Tarn (department)
974:Pavitt, Michael (7 January 2019).
943:Bassons handed one-year suspension
618:Urquhart, Conal (12 August 2012).
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266:In 1998 he turned down a 270,000
79:1.86 m (6 ft 1 in)
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892:Libération, France, 26 July 1999
740:Peddlers - Cycling's Dirty Truth
216:Bassons became known during the
945:, Cycling News, 20 October 2012
608:Procycling, UK, undated cutting
188:Christophe Bassons was born in
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776:Cited, L'Ăquipe, 17 July 1999
507:, National Road Championships
533:Critérium du Dauphiné Libéré
422:He moved to a smaller team,
932:Christophe Bassons suspendu
919:Procycling, UK, August 1999
847:Procycling, undated cutting
405:Bassons' colleagues in the
241:Jean-Luc Gatellier said in
218:1998 Festina doping scandal
208:, a watch and clock maker.
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812:"results/1999/jul99/jul18"
787:"results/1999/jul99/jul20"
465:After professional cycling
27:French cyclist (born 1974)
447:French Cycling Federation
343:"attacked from the start"
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87:74 kg (163 lb)
1107:Doping cases in cycling
816:autobus.cyclingnews.com
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683:4 November 2013 at the
663:VĂ©lo, France, June 1999
180:in the Tour de France.
910:L'Ăquipe, 19 July 1999
883:L'Ăquipe, 17 July 2009
702:Macur, Juliet (2014).
645:L'Ăquipe, 17 July 1999
496:Grand Prix des Nations
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1097:French male cyclists
901:Procycling, UK, 2000
428:Four Days of Dunkirk
307:Ian Austen wrote in
40:Personal information
1102:People from Mazamet
1041:at Cycling Quotient
1007:at Cycling Archives
978:. inside the games.
586:cyclisme-dopage.com
400:Marie-George Buffet
288:1999 Tour de France
174:road racing cyclist
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1056:Christophe Bassons
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1024:at ProCyclingStats
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414:Cycling after 1999
407:Française des Jeux
366:Jean-Marie Leblanc
170:Christophe Bassons
148:Française des Jeux
121:Professional teams
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34:Christophe Bassons
1072:a page on Bassons
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1058:at MTB Data
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392:non partant
339:Alpe d'Huez
293:Le Parisien
232:Armin Meier
227:France Soir
1081:Categories
961:lemonde.fr
564:References
505:Time trial
388:Sestrieres
362:St-Ătienne
335:Sestrieres
310:Procycling
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105:Discipline
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432:Bicycling
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282:1999 Tour
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129:Force Sud
681:Archived
478:Guardian
244:L'Ăquipe
71:, France
471:Positif
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206:Festina
190:Mazamet
184:Origins
100:Retired
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821:18 May
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327:cancer
178:doping
84:Weight
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261:VĂ©lo
234:and
194:Tarn
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626:.
595:.
57:(
20:)
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