Tonight Christian Prudhomme, the Tour de France director, was one of the guests in Stade 2 , the sports show on France 2 and he answered to questions from Gérard Holtz and Jean René Godard concerning the confessions of several ex-riders of the Telekom team (which has since become T-Mobile).

Seated next to Amélie Mauresmo (because Stade 2 was live from Roland Garros, which start was by the way not really as planned due to heavy rain) he gave his much awaited reaction on the confessions of especially Erik Zabel and Bjarne Riis.

First -obvious- question: Riis is currently the Team CSC manager while he now confirmed he used doping, what does this mean for the Tour? Christian Prudhomme answered this question first of all by saying that Bjarne Riis himself said he didn't deserve winning the Tour de France; while his whole carreer since having stopped professional cycling is based on this victory ... does he deserve to be the manager of a big cycling team today? Prudhomme also wants to know the link between Riis at the time he used doping and Riis today and what Team CSC's position on this is.

One of the questions Jean René Godard asked Christian was a little bit stupid because he asked how ASO will be able to get enough cyclists for this year's Tour de France before July 7th, the day of the Grand Départ of the Tour de France 2007 in London. The Tour de France doesn't need cheaters ... everyone wants to participate in the Tour de France so there's no problem to get enough riders and the Tour will automatically pick the new champions among them. We wanted the riders who take/took doping to talk about it and that they would no longer be blocked by the omerta (the law of silence enforced by the Mafia) of the pack and that's what finally happens today and this should continue so we can again love the beautiful sport which cycling is!!

Christian Prudhomme a little bit avoided the question about whether Riis should pay back the money he earned with the Tour by saying that it's important that the cheaters talk and that that's in the interest of all riders and the sport in general. Their speed when climbing the mountains of the Tour is not important at all (finally this has been said!!) ... "the myth of the Tour de France is the face of a Thomas Voeckler at Plateau de Beille 3 years ago, with an open shirt, a face misformed by his pain and suffering on his bike and then suddenly his face which clears up, that's the myth of the Tour de France! That's what we want to see again and that's what we can see again in the Tour de France!" ... Ehmm yes, we also want to see beautiful images and surprises like that, and why not at Plateau de Beille (stage details) this year ;-)!!

Jean René Goddard's second question was about the existance of a list with another 49 names in the Puerto doping case. Christian Prudhomme's answer was very clear: ASO doesn't know of such a list. Even though ASO is an opinion leader, they do not have all the power in this sport, "if we could simply push a button, that would be very easy, and we would of course push that button ... but we must defend those who don't cheat ... I don't like it when people say they're all bad, all using drugs, in that case all politicians are bad, all cyclists are doped, all priests are paedophile and all journalists have been bribed ... that's not possible, that doesn't mean anything. However, yes, of course we must work hard, we must work together, we can only get out of this situation together, with the riders : there are more riders who don't cheat as people are led to believe, those who just do their work, but also with the managers, with the team sponsors who must also help us and of course the organisers and the international cycling union".
We want to believe this, because we also like cycling and the Tour de France, especially when it's a clean Tour!!

The whole interview is available at Stade 2's website and below.

The other parts of this show which might be interesting are two reports on Bjarne Riis' confessions and on Nicholas Roche, Stephen Roche's son, who currently rides in the Giro .

Leave a comment