Anti-doping, sacrifices and lives under the permanent control of cyclists

No noise escapes from the room. Maël sleeps peacefully, coiled against his wife. Then, three strokes on the wood of the front door. The doorbell sounds. The alarm clock displays 7:03 am… Maël rises, the eyelids still sewn sleepy, and will open. The scene, which has become ordinary, is repeated almost every month, in the intimacy of the home …

Maël Guégan, 27, is a professional cyclist, crossing the most beautiful valleys in Europe. But this life in the open air has its ransom: in the early morning, when the anti -doping controllers strike, we open. No exception. The protocol is relentless, and especially random: the inspectors may not spend for months, then arise three days in a row. It doesn’t matter that children sleep upstairs. Or that the weekend is spending at the in-laws.

Mechanics, it never varies according to the place: a urinary test, most often followed by a blood test. The athlete chooses one of the three containers set by the expert and goes to the toilet, without ever closing the door. The inspector on the heels. “Some even ask you to put yourself naked to make sure you don’t hide anything,” says the Nantes, member of the Cic U Nantes team. The first time you undress in front of a stranger, posted in your W.-C., that is funny. »»

If anti-doping controls are necessary, especially in a sport marked by suspicion since the Festina scandal of the years 1998-1999, they imposed daily athletes under constant surveillance. Connected to the Adams system (Administration and anti -doping management system) – an application dedicated to all high -level athletes who trace their trips – runners must permanently report the place where they are. From the yellow jersey to the semi-professional runner. Each day, a one hour niche must be indicated, for potential control. And this all year round …

Permanent stress

In the event of absence or a simple waking up, the warning falls. After three breaches, the athlete is stored in the cheaters category. “I was the first to want to be as controlled as possible, for the good of my sport. But now that it’s over, it may be what I miss the least, “Badine Julien Simon, just retired, eight big loops to his credit. He does not regret anything of permanent stress: having to update his location when a child falls ill, give up sleeping with friends, for fear of being imposed.

A pressure that intensifies during the Tour de France. Upon arrival of the stages, winner and riders drawn by lot are immediately escorted by a “riding hood” to the control caravan. A vitreous prefabricated, placed on four wheels, where the same tests are linked as at home. When he wore the yellow jersey in 2011, Thomas Voeckler says he was checked up to three times in the same day. After the race, before departure, sometimes at the hotel, in the middle of a meal with the teammates. “Even if it is never a pleasure to extend her arm to a nurse after dinner, that’s good, it shows the seriousness of follow-up,” he praises. Between 2022 and 2024, the budget of the French agency for the fight against doping (AFLD) increased by 18.8 %. Each year, it leads approximately 1,500 samples from cycling*.

“The struggle has progressed considerably,” says Thomas Voeckler. But the coach of the French male team is worried: “We no longer see any runner taken, or almost, for fifteen years …” From the Lance Armstrong case, deposed from his seven towers of France for systemic doping and the fall of Alberto Contador, winner in 2010 then disqualified, the positive controls are scarce. At the same time, the peloton is rolling always faster and the best in the circuit pushed records, including those of dark years. Enough to give birth to a suspicion by the roads.

Watch out for drugs

“It’s hard to hear” all doped “when you know what controls require as sacrifices,” says Maël Guégan. Tested a dozen times a year, he got into the habit of never drinking in a bottle started, never swallows the slightest cachet without the advice of a specialist capable of deciphering the long list of prohibited substances.

In theory, treatment can be authorized on medical justification, faced with a disease. In practice, this often involves several weeks away from the roads, the time to erase any impact on performance. With each angina, distrust comes back: “Even a syrup against children’s coughs is considered doping, so you quickly become paranoid”, let go of Maël. Held him: only products outside the list. No matter the pain. His credo is simple. The same as on the bicycle: “Get the teeth. »»

* Source: AFLD, activity reports 2022 and 2024.