Tour de France
MACON, France, July 11, 2012 (AFP) – French cycling team Cofidis said they
will look to put a latest doping controversy behind them by maintaining their
race objectives at the Tour de France.
Cofidis were thrown into the doping spotlight on Tuesday after French rider
Remy Di Gregorio was arrested following a police raid on their team hotel.
Di Gregorio had been under telephone surveillance by police since last year
– when he raced with Kazakh team Astana — and was held for questioning
overnight following allegations that he and two other men are involved in a
doping network.
Cofidis immediately suspended the 26-year-old cyclist and pledged to sack
him if the allegations are confirmed.
At the start of the 10th stage in Macon Wednesday, team manager Yvon
Sanquer, who has called the incident an “isolated case”, said they must now
focus on the race.
“It’s now time to turn the page,” said Sanquer, who joined the French team
only days before the start following the sacking of former team manager Eric
Boyer.
“We want to focus all our energy on competing in the best possible way, and
to continue to aim for our objectives.”
Cofidis’s main aim is to get their Estonian rider Rein Taaramae into the
white jersey for the race’s best-placed rider aged 25 and under, and to take
it all the way to Paris.
It is not the first time one or several riders from Cofidis have been
embroiled in a doping affair.
Several riders including Briton David Millar and Frenchman Phillipe Gaumont
were implicated in a damaging doping affair in 2004, leading to radical
changes at management level.
Three years later, under pressure from organisers, the team voluntarily
left the 2007 Tour when Italian rider, Cristian Moreni, tested positive for
the banned blood booster EPO (erythropoietin).
Since then Cofidis, and many other teams, have adopted strict, internal
anti-doping measures. All teams now automatically suspend riders upon
suspicion of doping and sack them if those suspicions are confirmed.
Sanquer said he had no news on Di Gregorio, but that the remaining riders
in his team had taken the setback relatively well.
“After initially suffering with what’s happened, which is only natural,
they’re starting to put it behind them,” he added.
“We’ve done everything we can to play down the incident. What we now need
to do is concentrate on the race.”
Tour de France race director Christian Prudhomme said Tuesday he saw a
positive message coming from the case.
“The message is the following: those who cheat will be uncovered at some
point whether it is early or later, everyone must understand that well and
that does us a lot of good.
“The earlier they are caught, the better it is,” he said.
