Paris (AFP)

"Buying" or "selling" a race, the prohibited practice for which Alexandre Vinokourov and Alexandr Kolobnev were acquitted on Tuesday by the Criminal Court of Liège, belongs to the past of cycling, in the opinion of the riders or team managers interviewed by AFP.

Once commonplace, rooted in the DNA of runners, the illicit deal disappeared in the 1990s and 2000s as team budgets increased. But it resurfaces on occasion, as for the 2010 edition of Liège-Bastogne-Liege which has lent side to suspicion.

"Corruption is as serious as doping," says Christophe Riblon, who ran from 2005 to 2018. "We are in sport, we are supposed to convey values".

In his career, marked by numerous breakaways, the Frenchman, who became a consultant for La Chaîe, said he had "never known that". At the pros, I was never asked or proposed, "he says.

Would the professional peloton be virtuous? Or rather realistic, since the substantial contracts for runners are accompanied, as in other sectors of professional life, a duty of loyalty?

"Since I led a team (1997), I have never faced this problem," said Marc Madiot, on the same line as the other team leaders consulted by AFP. As a rider, the manager of the Groupama-FDJ obviously knew another era, that of the "mafias", when the arrangements were part of the everyday life of amateur cycling. We roll together and we get along, the winner then compensates the loser.

- "Neither the riders nor the teams have interest" -

"In the old days," he says, "the guys earned their living in village races, but even at that level, it's gradually disappearing, there's no money left."

And among the pros? "Neither the riders nor the teams are interested," Madiot answers. "Salaries have risen sharply from the 1980s. Contracts are indexed to results, everyone needs points."

From follower memory, the suspicions of "arranged" racing, the other scourge of cycling with doping, have become exceptional. Unlike what has long been the case.

In his blog, the doctor-historian Jean-Pierre de Mondenard reports many testimonies of this practice. The first trace? As early as 1901, in a race in Australia, when fifteen to twenty riders were bribed to lose, according to the obviously later testimony of the coach of the winner, whose name was William Martin: "Each rider was invited alone in the room, where he had faced the notes and Martin, armed with a revolver, and had even demanded that they sign a receipt before taking the money. "

It remains to distinguish the illicit agreement, a financial arrangement in support, from simple tactics, when the interests of each concord. As in other sports, such as a football team ensuring the draw without trying to win the game at all costs.

"The subject often arises," says Riblon, "in a two-man breakaway, a runner rolls hard because he is concerned by the overall standings, even if he loses his chances of winning the stage. the same goal ".

© 2019 AFP