In France, Little Surprise at Lance Armstrong’s Looming Doping Sanctions

While some French cycling professionals welcomed the US Anti-Doping Agency’s announcement that Lance Armstrong could be stripped of his Tour de France titles and banned from the sport, others feel that this is a sad day for cycling and a let down for Armstrong’s fans.

Doping allegations have long dogged Lance Armstrong in France and Fabrice Jouhaud, managing editor for L’Equipe, France’s largest daily sports newspaper-says the news has not surprised anyone there.

He tells anchor Marco Werman his paper published its first doping report on Armstrong almost seven years to this day.

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Marco Werman: In France, where doping allegations have shadowed Lance Armstrong, the announcement from the US Anti-Doping Agency didn’t come as a major surprise. Fabrice Jouhaud is managing editor for L’Equipe, France’s largest daily sports newspaper. He said journalists there began writing about Armstrong and doping seven years ago.

Fabrice Jouhaud: Unfortunately, I cannot say I was surprised. I think nobody was really surprised in France because we knew since seven years exactly that there was a problem of doping with Lance Armstrong.

Werman: Seven years ago these reports started coming up, so for you it was just a matter of time before Lance Armstrong would have to face up to these charges, huh?

Jouhaud: Ah, it’s difficult to say it was a matter of time because it took a long time before somebody decided to open an official inquiry. We can think that Lance Armstrong was protected by a lot of people in the sports world and maybe the political world.

Werman: Do you have proof of that?

Jouhaud: No, we don’t have proof, but what is very surprising is all this silence with all these people in the cycling world who would say that it was just allegations of journalists thinking they were on a mission or pro cyclists were just [??] about their past. I think it’s quite embarrassing for the cycling world what is happening today.

Werman: I know Lance Armstrong’s repeated wins at the Tour de France made a lot of people start to scratch their head. Is there a sense of vindication in France today that this American superman who conquered the greatest cycling event more than anyone else in the world actually is not the superman he seemed to be?

Jouhaud: No, I don’t think so because most of the people today are very sad, sad for the Tour de France, sad for cycling, and I think some of them are also sad for Lance Armstrong because it his image, his legend that is broken.

Werman: The legend is broken?

Jouhaud: Yeah, I think it’s difficult for all these people who have believed that after cancer you could ride on a bike and win the Tour de France, and all these people today, they think maybe they were abused. They think, “Oh, maybe I beleived in a mirage,” I don’t know in English, a mirage?

Werman: A mirage, yeah.

Jouhaud: “And all of this was untrue”.

Werman: Well, now that the issue is kind of more or less settled, won’t it help clean the doped-up reputation that Tour de France has?

Jouhaud: Yeah, it’s quite difficult for the Tour de France. We used to say in France that the Tour de France is stronger than everything because in the past, with all these doping scandals, the popularity of the race has not been damaged. But I think there is a problem with the cycling image in general because it’s true that this sport fights a lot against doping, but if you look at the winners, the last fifteen heroes, it’s quite difficult to say that the winner at the end is real one.

Werman: Yeah. Do you ever long for the days when bicycles were made of steel and were not so light and the cyclists like Jacques Anquetil, the Frenchman who won the tournament so many times, didn’t dope?

Jouhaud: I don’t think that nostalgia is the best medicine for cycling and for people who love cycling sports because Jacques Anquetil himself told that he was taking prohibited products.

Werman: Oh really?

Jouhaud: Yeah, of course. The difference is that at this time there was no rule and each racer could take whatever he wants.

Werman: And that was in the 50s and 60s, right?

Jouhaud: Yeah, so that was the very beginning of the anti-doping fight. I think people who are nostalgic, they just don’t want to face the reality of the past, but also of the present.

Werman: Fabrice Jouhaud, managing editor for L’Equipe, the number one newspaper for sports in France. Thank you very much

Jouhaud: Thank you.

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