Philippe Gaumont
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Personal information | |||||||||||||||
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Full name | Philippe Gaumont | ||||||||||||||
Born | Amiens, France | 22 February 1973||||||||||||||
Died | 17 May 2013[1] Arras, France | (aged 40)||||||||||||||
Height | 1.85 m (6 ft 1 in) | ||||||||||||||
Weight | 76 kg (168 lb; 12 st 0 lb) | ||||||||||||||
Team information | |||||||||||||||
Discipline | Road | ||||||||||||||
Role | Rider | ||||||||||||||
Professional teams | |||||||||||||||
1994–1995 | Castorama | ||||||||||||||
1996 | Gan | ||||||||||||||
1997–2004 | Cofidis | ||||||||||||||
Medal record
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Philippe Gaumont (22 February 1973 – 17 May 2013)[2] was a French professional road racing cyclist.[3] He earned a bronze medal in the 1992 Summer Olympics, 100 km team time trial.[4] In 1997 he won the Belgian classic Gent–Wevelgem and he was twice individual pursuit French national champion, in 2000 and 2002. In 2004, Gaumont quit professional cycling and later ran a café in Amiens.
Gaumont was well known for having confessed to extensive doping and explaining many tricks of the trade.[5] Gaumont gave a series of interviews, and wrote a book, Prisonnier du dopage ("Prisoner of doping") in which he explained doping methods, masking methods, the use of drug cocktails such as the pot belge for training and for recreation, and how the need to make money makes racers dope themselves. In April 2013 he suffered a major heart attack and was reported to be in a coma.[6] On 13 May 2013, several news sources reported his death,[7] but according to La Voix du Nord he remained in an artificial coma, though had suffered brain death.[8][9] He died on 17 May 2013.[10]
Doping usage
[edit]Gaumont began his professional career in 1994 in the Castorama team. In 1996 he joined the GAN team, and tested positive for nandrolone in two races. He joined Cofidis in 1997 and stayed there until the end of his career. In 1998 he tested positive twice for the nandrolone drug, but obtained that the case was dismissed. A year later a blood test conducted in the "Docteur Mabuse" justice case showed he was positive for amphetamines.
In 2004, he was interrogated by French police and justice in the enquiry for the Cofidis doping case. He declared that he had repeatedly and consistently used doping products, including EPO, since the beginning of his professional career. He then said that he thought that 95% of professional racers doped themselves and expressed very strong doubts that a racer could win a major tour, such as the Tour de France, without doping. As a result of this case, he quit professional racing.
Gaumont gave details in his book such as how to avoid being tested positive for corticoids: how, for instance, to irritate one's testicle sac using salt in order to provoke a rash and obtain a prescription for some corticoid cream. Since urine tests do not distinguish between (legal) corticoid applied as creams, with a prescription, and (illegal) injections, such prescriptions are used to mask doping.
Major results
[edit]- 1992
- 1st Overall Tour de la Somme
- Bronze medal Olympics Men's team time trial
- 1994
- 1st Overall Tour du Poitou-Charentes
- 1st Stage 5
- 1996
- 1st Overall Four Days of Dunkirk
- 1st Overall Tour de Picardie
- 1st Stage 1
- 1st La Côte Picarde
- 2nd Tour de Vendée
- 1997
- 1st Gent–Wevelgem
- 1st Stage 3a Four Days of Dunkirk
- 1998
- 1st Stage 1 Grand Prix du Midi Libre
- 3rd Overall Étoile de Bessèges
- 2000
- French Pursuit Champion
- French Team Pursuit Champion
- Bronze medal World Championships - Pursuit
- 2002
- French Pursuit Champion
See also
[edit]References
[edit]- ^ Décès de Philippe Gaumont, lequipe.fr, 17 May 2013
- ^ 'Cyclisme : Philippe Gaumont est décédé', lavoixdunord.fr, 17 may 2013
- ^ "Décès de l'ancien cycliste Philippe Gaumont - RTBF Cyclisme". Rtbf.be. 13 May 2013. Retrieved 13 May 2013.
- ^ Olympic results
- ^ Cyclists 'cheat dope tests'
- ^ "Gaumont In A Coma After A Major Heart Attack". Cyclingnews.com. 25 April 2013. Retrieved 25 April 2013.
- ^ Philippe Gaumont dies at 40 following heart attack
- ^ "L'ancien coureur cycliste picard Philippe Gaumont serait en état de mort cérébrale à Arras". France 3 Picardie. 14 May 2013. Retrieved 14 May 2013.
- ^ "Ex-wielrenner Philippe Gaumont 'hersendood'". De Standaard. 13 May 2013. Retrieved 13 May 2013.
- ^ Mandard, Stéphane (22 May 2013). "Philippe Gaumont: vie et mort d'un ex "prisonnier du dopage"". Le Monde. Retrieved 23 May 2013.
External links
[edit]- Philippe Gaumont at Cycling Archives
- Philippe Gaumont at ProCyclingStats
- Philippe Gaumont at Cycling Quotient
- Philippe Gaumont at CycleBase
- Philippe Gaumont at Olympedia
- Portrait
- 1973 births
- 2013 deaths
- Sportspeople from Amiens
- French male cyclists
- Cyclists at the 1992 Summer Olympics
- Cyclists at the 2000 Summer Olympics
- Olympic cyclists for France
- Doping cases in cycling
- Olympic bronze medalists in cycling
- Medalists at the 1992 Summer Olympics
- Olympic bronze medalists for France
- Cyclists from Hauts-de-France