Nat Bromhead
The French amateur cyclist arrested after being found with an electric motor hidden inside his bike claims he wasn’t trying to cheat but attempting to regain form after recovering from injury.
43 year-old Cyril Fontayne was arrested by local police for “suspicion of trickery” during the race in Dordogne in south west France. It was the first case of mechanical doping revealed in French amateur cycling.
Numerous reports suggest the rider had been under the eye of French anti-doping officials for some time.
“I did it because I suffered a herniated disc in March and I did not ride a bike for three months,” Fontayne told reporters.
“I tried to resume the competition but I had trouble because of a sciatica in the right leg, I did it to have less trouble at the end of the race.”
“I did not make the money,” he added.
‘I Am Not The Only One To Do It’
Fontayne, a plasterer, said he did “not want to be a champion of the Dordogne” but to simply to regain sensations of riding.
“I understand that the riders against whom I ran are unhappy, I did not sell drugs or kill children, I put a motor in my bike – I am not the only one to do it.”
With similar concealed electric motors readily available on the internet, Fontayne claimed the site where he obtained his sells “twenty to thirty engines a month”.
He is now awaiting judicial proceedings and is expected to be handed a life ban from racing.
