Gilles Delion

Gilles Delion is a racing cyclist, born the August 5th 1966 with Saint-Etienne

Biography

Passed professional in 1988, it appears within the team Suisse Helvetia of Paul Koechli.
Its race of predilection will be the Tour of Lombardy which it finishes several times in good position before carrying it in 1990.
It appears this same year on the roads of the Tour de France that it finishes 15th, better young person (white Shirt) and second French.
Always in 1990, it is classified 5th with the final classification of the World cup.
The continuation of its career will be less filling with enthusiasm because of a disease. Handicapped, from 1991 by a recurring Mononucleosis, it does not manage to maintain its performances.
It finishes 21st Tour de France.
Its prize list grows rich however in 1992 by a Classique by the Alps and by very a great victory by stage on the Tour de France with Valkenburg in front of Stephen Roche which it finishes 58ème with the final classification.
In 1993, it joined the rows of the team Castorama of Cyrille Guimard, gains two sleeves of Breton Mid-August.
In 1994, it gains the Grand Prix the Marseillaise, a stage of the Turn of Ain and the Grand Prix of the Town of Rennes.
But the performances really any more do not follow, after a passage in the incipient team Chazal in 1995, it finishes its career in 1996 in the team Italy Aki Gipiemme.
At the end of the season, it launches out in the VTT (Vélo any ground) as a professional.

Its name however will be quoted many times in example thereafter like that of a runner having always refused to yield to temptation doping within a group more and more gangréné at the end of the Années 1990.

Prize list

1989 : Grand Prix of Lugano.
1990 : Turn of Lombardy, a stage of the International Critérium, white Shirt of the best young person of the Tour de France.
1992 : Traditional of the Alps, a stage of the Tour de France.
1993 : two sleeves of Mid-August Breton.
1994 : Grand Prix the Marseillaise, a stage of the Turn of the Ain, Grand Prix of the Town of Rennes.

Its standpoint on doping

In International Cycling of January 1997 :

" I do not see (...) the interest to gain completely lit, nor which pride one can draw some. (...) I am very attached to this concept of purity of the sport, without which there is no more beauty of the gesture, more heroism. (...) The pros must be irreproachable; the end does not justify the means, it is not vrai."

In France Cyclist n°2129 of the 12/7/2001 :

" The crime of doping benefits the sportsmen who gain tens of million francs and for which the sanctions are not enough lourdes."

In France Cyclist n°2129 of the 12/7/2001 :

" Doping in the bicycle (...), one speaks to me about it since I am fourteen years old! It is thus not today. Me, I was saved. Within the Helvetia team, I swam in an oasis of serenity, quiet, far from all that. It was not our concern. One did not speak about doping in this formation, we were not with the current what did without. The old ones did not speak about it either. But it is clear that in 1993 everyone knew that a new product had unloaded in the group, EPO. (...) It will never be known if the guy which never took some are champions, but were the runners which one presented as such it really? Some usurped careers and reputations, prize lists aussi."

In France Cyclist n°2129 of the 12/7/2001) :

" I include/understand (...) the runners which came to]] as a last resort. They followed the movement and fact like the others. They are victims of doping. One cannot want some with those which came there when more than 70% of the group used it already. They sought to save their skin. On the other hand, I blame those which seek, drive out and obtain before everyone of the products nouveaux."

Reactions

In the Team of the 1/17/1997 , Hein Verbruggen, then President of UCI, said in connection with declarations of Gilles Delion implying that many runners are doped with EPO:

" I am not impressed at all by testimonys of runners like Delion or (Graham) Obree which are people in end of a career, who cannot follow the group any more. I find that release, I do not have an other mot."

External bonds

Standpoint of Gilles Delion
Portrait on a site antidopage
Interview of Gilles Delion in connection with doping
of Gilles Delion

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