Paris (AFP)

Checked positive at the EPO in June 2019, the French cyclist Marion Sicot admitted her fault in an interview broadcast on Sunday in Stade 2, explaining her "error" by the grip of her sports director at Doltcini-Van Eyck Sport, team which is also the subject of a UCI investigation.

Sicot, 31, tested positive at EPO on June 27, 2019, after the time trial of the French Road Championships, which she finished in 10th place.

"I was so lost that I was ready to take the risk," said Marion Sicot, who admitted having ordered ten bottles of EPO on the internet in late May 2019.

She wanted to get a performance so that her sports director Marc Bracque gave her "as much importance as the other girls, (keep) her on the team and (leave) her alone with this relentlessness," she adds.

After much hesitation, she said that she had an injection on June 24, before learning of her positive control on July 18.

Arrived in 2018 in the Doltcini-Van Eyck team, Sicot, officially self-employed but paid, claims that another "secret contract" required him to pay his travel expenses, "that is to say train tickets or plane ". Contacted by Stade 2, the sports director denied the existence of such a secret contract.

- photos "in underwear" -

Relations between Sicot and Bracque "are getting worse from month to month, (with) increasingly hurtful messages," she added.

From November 2018, the sports director asked him for photos "in underwear", to "be able to control (his) weight," says Sicot. The manager acknowledged to Stade 2 having asked for these photos for this purpose.

"Sometimes he asks me twice a week. And clearly, if I do not provide him with these photos, I will not be able to do the early season shopping," added the cyclist.

Subsequently, she refuses to accede to her requests to send her "slightly daring pictures, in thongs".

"Without this dark year, I would never have taken EPO to try to obtain a result or a performance," she explains.

The cyclist admits to having committed a fault and considers that she deserves a sanction - four years planned for taking EPO. "I would like to have a light sentence, because I have a few circumstances that made it happen," she defends herself.

"Given the gravity of the accusations made by this rider, the president of the French cycling federation has decided to officially seize the president of the UCI to request that an investigation be carried out into the practices of this team," said Sunday evening. the FFC in a press release.

In an investigation at the end of February, the daily Le Monde had indicated that the UCI Ethics Commission had opened a "formal procedure" concerning the training, following testimony from other sportsmen on the team.

© 2020 AFP