I did not know how to respond to it
I did not know how to respond to it."Arnaud Tournant had not been beaten in four years. All he cared about was the kilometre gold, and now it was going to take another four years to have a crack at it He was in tears, and he has not spoken to me since. Perhaps I will feel pressure when I get the opportunity to defend it in 2004.". The French cyclist, Richard Virenque, was cleared yesterday of encouraging colleagues to take drugs. In a somewhat anti-climactic delayed verdict to a three-week trial last October - billed as the "trial of professional cycling" - a court in Lille imposed suspended jail sentences on two officials of the now-disbanded Festina team.
The French cyclist, Richard Virenque, was cleared yesterday of encouraging colleagues to take drugs. In a somewhat anti-climactic delayed verdict to a three-week trial last October - billed as the "trial of professional cycling" - a court in Lille imposed suspended jail sentences on two officials of the now-disbanded Festina team. But Virenque, the leader of the team, who confessed during the trial to taking banned substances, was cleared of charges of conspiring to persuade other team members to dope themselves. Taking performance-enhancing drugs is not a crime under French law.Bruno Roussel, the team manager, and Willy Voet, the trainer, were convicted and given 10-month suspended jail sentences. Roussel was fined £5,000 and Voet £3,000.The sentences may seem out of proportion to the resources - and media attention - devoted to the two-year criminal investigation and three-week trial.
But they are broadly in line with the punishments sought by the public prosecutor, who recommended that Virenque should go free.The trial arose from the arrest of Voet in July 1998 when he crossed the Franco-Belgian border, bound for the Tour de France, in a van piled high with performance-boosting drugs. The "Festina" affair almost caused the abandonment of that year's Tour and rapidly became a test case for drug-taking in professional road-race cycling.A procession of witnesses at the trial, including Roussel and Voet, said that the use of banned substances was almost universal in the sport. They said that drug-taking in the Festina team - then ranked No 1 in the world - was encouraged and policed by the riders themselves, led by Virenque.Under pressure from the presiding judge, Virenque, twice the "King of the Mountains" in the Tour, abandoned his insistence that he had never "knowingly" taken drugs. He said he had been forced to do so "against my will" to keep up with other riders. He rejected the accusation that he helped to organise drug-taking in the team. No direct, corroborating evidence was offered on this point.Virenque does not emerge entirely unscathed. He faces a six-month ban from cycling which will prevent him from riding in the 2001 Tour.Otherwise, the relatively mild sentences will do little to encourage a radical change of attitude.
