Christophe Bassons

Christophe Bassons (born 10 June 1974 ) is a French former professional road racing cyclist. His career ended when he spoke out about doping in the Tour de France.

Origins Christophe Bassons was born in Mazamet, France, in the Tarn department. He studied and qualified in civil engineering. He began cycle-racing in 1991 in mountain biking.

Jean-Luc Gatellier said in L'Équipe:

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 EPO) 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."

In 1998 he turned down a 270,000 franc-per-month raise (more than 10 times what he was earning at the time) offered to him if he would use Erythropoietin (EPO). His stance against doping led other riders, most notably Lance Armstrong, to harass him for breaking the longstanding code of silence about doping in the sport.

Ian Austen wrote in Procycling:

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 Blois, 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 cancer, he'd risen to the top of the pack, Bassons wrote that his performances had 'shocked' the peloton.

Stage 10 took place on 14 July and was from Sestrieres to Alpe d'Huez. 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 ("attacked from the start"). 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. Armstrong confirmed the story. On the main evening news on TF1, a French 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 (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." 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. at the start at Sestrieres. But more often, others pointed at him [on le montrait du 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, 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."

Cycling after 1999

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, but the mistreatment continued. In 2001 at Four Days of Dunkirk, he later told Bicycling, "several guys tried to ride me into the ditch . . . it got dangerous, and I realized that it wasn't worth continuing". 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 €31,691 (£28,440/$36,270) in compensation.

In 2011/2012, after investigations into past doping in cycling, especially the 2012 USADA report on Armstrong's US Postal Service team, some media re-told Bassons' story. In one interview for the BBC, Tyler Hamilton 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."

After professional cycling

In 2000 he published his autobiography Positif and in 2001 he qualified as a sports teacher and began teaching. He now works for the ministry of youth and sport at Bordeaux, in charge of drug tests.

Major results

1996 7th Grand Prix des Nations 1998 3rd Time trial, National Road Championships 4th Overall Tour de Pologne 5th GP Eddy Merckx 10th Grand Prix d'Ouverture La Marseillaise 1999 1st Stage 7 Critérium du Dauphiné Libéré 3rd Tour du Haut Var 2000 3rd Grand Prix d'Ouverture La Marseillaise 2001 9th Overall Circuit des Mines