Professional cyclist says motor doping "impossible" at top level, reacts to "crazy story" from French race as cycling film actor denies cheating at amateur event
The mystery pro cyclist told the Belgian press he had read about the case involving lera, calling it"crazy" but added that it would completely unrealistic to get away with mechanical doping in a professional race. "Every so often you have some idiot, like Jérôme Pineau, who says that riders use motors," he said."But I don't know how you as a rider would imagine something like that and how you would get away with it in these times full of checks. In the period 2008-2013, stories occasionally emerged about motors in the peloton. I believe that there were actually riders riding around with a motor in their bike.
The most recent case, involving a former elite cyclist and actor in the classic cycling film 'Le Vélo de Ghislain Lambert', 53-year-old lera wasand allegedly chucked his bike in a van driven by a teammate who ran over a race director during their escape.reported that Iera handed himself in to the local Gendarmes, facing charges of attempted fraud and aggravated assault, and that he was exonerated in relation to the incident involving race director Lenormand.
lera claimed his"right to the presumption of innocence has been gravely violated" and said he was"appalled by the amplitude of the publications online, on social media and in the press". The rider was expelled from his team, AC Bellaingeoise, the team's manager Daphnée Bos calling his behaviour"intolerable", a stance that has not changed in light of lera's statement.