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Drugs: Cycling trainer jailed
03/07/2006 19:55 - (SA)
Pierre Sauvey
Bordeaux - Former cycling trainer Freddy Sergant was jailed for four years on Monday for giving drug cocktails to riders, the harshest of 23 sentences in a trial centered on a vast doping ring.
None of the defendants escaped sanction in a case involving a doping network that supplied cocktails of amphetamines, cocaine and heroin to cyclists in France and Belgium.
Sergant - a Belgian believed to be the key figure - was also fined $230 200. His wife Monique was given a one-year prison term.
The other sentences ranged from a 1 500 euro fine to a 30-month prison term - with 20 suspended - for former pro cyclist Laurent Roux, who said he would appeal.
His brother Fabien was sentenced to 24 months with 15 suspended. The brothers, each of whom has already been jailed for eight months, were ordered to pay $230 200 apiece in fines.
Laurent Roux described his sentence as unfair.
"I have the impression that, despite what just happened in the Tour de France, that I'm the (scapegoat) for a totally corrupt system," Roux said.
The Tour de France was thrown into turmoil on the eve of this year's race when several cyclists favoured to win withdrew last Friday because of a massive blood-doping probe in Spain.
"I think my client is a victim. Doping runs deep in cycling," said Laurent Roux's lawyer, Alexandre Novion.
Some 2 000 doses of the performance-enhancing mixture - often called a "magic cocktail" or "Belgian cocktail" - were sold in France and Belgium between 2002 and 2005, the prosecutor said.
Paul Mauriac, a lawyer for the French Cycling Federation, said the verdicts were just.
"Let's stop saying that others dope, everyone dopes, so I will dope," Mauriac said.
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