Christophe Bassons
| Personal information | |
|---|---|
| Full name | Christophe Bassons |
| Born |
June 10, 1974 Mazamet, France |
| Team information | |
| Current team | Retired |
| Discipline | Road |
| Role | Rider |
| Professional team(s) | |
| 1996 | Force Sud |
| 1996–1998 | Festina |
| 1999 | Française des Jeux |
| 2000–2001 | Jean Delatour |
Christophe Bassons (born 10 June 1974 in Mazamet, France) is a French former professional road racing cyclist. Bassons' career ended when he spoke out about doping in the Tour de France.
Christophe Bassons was born in Mazamet, in the Tarn department. He studied and qualified in civil engineering. 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 time-trial champion. He turned professional in 1996 for Force Sud and then, when the team failed, for Festina, a watch and clock maker.
Bassons became known during the 1998 Festina doping scandal, when the discovery of a carload of drugs being driven to the team's riders in the Tour de France led to evidence that doping was widespread in the team. In September 1998, the newspaper France Soir published statements made to the police. Two convicted riders, Armin Meier and Christophe Moreau, said that Bassons was the only rider on the team not taking drugs.
Jean-Luc Gatellier said in L'Équipe:
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.
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