Richard Virenque
Encyclopedia
Richard VirenqueRichard Virenque's name is pronounced Ree-shah Vee-rahnk. Virenque considers himself a man of the South but pronounces his name in standard French. Confusion is caused by the southern habit of pronouncing "en" as "ang" or "eng", making it Vee-rank. But Virenque says Vee-rahnk or Vee-ronk, a sound difficult to write in English. (born November 19, 1969, Casablanca
Casablanca
Casablanca is a city in western Morocco, located on the Atlantic Ocean. It is the capital of the Grand Casablanca region.Casablanca is Morocco's largest city as well as its chief port. It is also the biggest city in the Maghreb. The 2004 census recorded a population of 2,949,805 in the prefecture...

, Morocco
Morocco
Morocco , officially the Kingdom of Morocco , is a country located in North Africa. It has a population of more than 32 million and an area of 710,850 km², and also primarily administers the disputed region of the Western Sahara...

) is a retired French
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

 professional road racing cyclist. He was one of the most popular French riders with fans for his boyish personality and his long, lone attacks.Virenque's fan club in 2000, two years after the Festina scandal had 5,000 members, of whom 2,000 were described as active. In 2000, Virenque received 589 letters in three weeks during the Tour de France, more than any other rider. He was a climber, winning the King of the Mountains
King of the Mountains
The King of the Mountains is the title given to the best climber in a cycling road race; usually and officially known as the Mountains classification...

 competition of the Tour de France
Tour de France
The Tour de France is an annual bicycle race held in France and nearby countries. First staged in 1903, the race covers more than and lasts three weeks. As the best known and most prestigious of cycling's three "Grand Tours", the Tour de France attracts riders and teams from around the world. The...

 a record seven times. In 1998 he was the central figure in a widespread doping scandal.

Virenque finished twice on the podium in the Tour de France (third in 1996 and second in 1997) and won several stages, among them Mont Ventoux
Mont Ventoux
Mont Ventoux is a mountain in the Provence region of southern France, located some 20 km northeast of Carpentras, Vaucluse. On the north side, the mountain borders the Drôme département. It is the largest mountain in the region and has been nicknamed the "Giant of Provence", or "The Bald...

 in 2002. He is the 18th rider in the Tour to have won stages over 10 years apart. The other riders who have won stages over 10 years apart were Jean Alavoine
Jean Alavoine
Jean Alavoine was a French professional cyclist, who won 17 stages in the Tour de France - only 8 riders have won more stages - and wore the yellow jersey for 5 days. In Daniel Marszalek's list of best road riders in history, he is ranked 96th....

, Henri Pélissier
Henri Pélissier
Henri Pélissier was a French racing cyclist from Paris and champion of the 1923 Tour de France. In addition to his 29 career victories, he was known for his long-standing feud with Tour founder Henri Desgrange and for protesting against the conditions endured by riders in the early years of the Tour...

, Philippe Thys
Philippe Thys
Philippe Thys was a Belgian cyclist and three times winner of the Tour de France.-Professional career:...

, Louis Mottiat
Louis Mottiat
Louis Mottiat was a Belgian professional road bicycle racer. Because of his endurance he was nicknamed 'the iron man'. His career was interrupted by World War I.- Palmarès :19101911191219131914...

, André Leducq
André Leducq
André Leducq was a French cyclist who won the 1930 and 1932 Tour de France.-Career:...

, Antonin Magne
Antonin Magne
Antonin Magne was a French cyclist who won the Tour de France in 1931 and 1934. He raced as a professional from 1927 to 1939 and then became a team manager...

, René Vietto
René Vietto
René Vietto was a French road racing cyclist.In the 1934 Tour de France, Vietto, a relative unknown, got wings on the mountains. This was not a surprise, because he had won the Grand Prix Wolber. He was prepared for the Alps and won easily on the steepest terrain...

, Gino Bartali
Gino Bartali
Gino Bartali, Cavaliere di Gran Croce OMRI was the most renowned Italian cyclist before the Second World War, having won the Giro d'Italia twice and the Tour de France in 1938...

, André Darrigade
André Darrigade
André Darrigade was a French professional road bicycle racer between 1951 and 1966. Darrigade, a road sprinter won the 1959 World Championship and 22 stages of the Tour de France. Five of those were on the first day. The record has never been equalled.-Origins:André Darrigade was born at Narosse,...

, Jean Stablinski
Jean Stablinski
Jean Stablewski, known as Jean Stablinski was a French professional cyclist from a family of Polish immigrants. He rode from 1952 to 1968, winning 105 races as a professional...

, Raymond Poulidor
Raymond Poulidor
Raymond Poulidor , is a former professional bicycle racer. He was known as the eternal second, because he finished the Tour de France in second place three times, and in third place five times, including his final Tour at the age of 40...

, Felice Gimondi
Felice Gimondi
Felice Gimondi is an Italian former professional racing cyclist.With his 1968 victory at the Vuelta a España, only three years after becoming a professional cyclist, Gimondi, nicknamed "The Phoenix", was the second cyclist to win all three Grand Tours of road cycling: Tour de France , Giro...

, Gerben Karstens
Gerben Karstens
Gerben Karstens is a former professional racing cyclist from the Netherlands, who won the gold medal in the 100 km team trial at the 1964 Summer Olympics, alongside Bart Zoet, Evert Dolman, and Jan Pieterse...

, Ferdinand Bracke
Ferdinand Bracke
Ferdinand Bracke is a former Belgian professional road and track cyclist who is most famous for holding the World Hour Record and winning the overall title at the 1971 Vuelta a España in front of Wilfried David of Belgium and Luis Ocaña of Spain...

, Joaquim Agostinho
Joaquim Agostinho
Joaquim Fernandes Agostinho, OIH was a Portuguese professional bicycle racer. He was champion of Portugal in six successive years. He rode the Tour de France 13 times and finished all but once, winning on Alpe d'Huez in 1979, and finishing 3rd twice...

, Lucien Van Impe
Lucien Van Impe
Lucien van Impe was a Belgian cyclist from 1969 to 1987. He excelled mainly as a climber in multiple-day races such as the Tour de France...

 and Lance Armstrong
Lance Armstrong
Lance Edward Armstrong is an American former professional road racing cyclist who won the Tour de France a record seven consecutive times, after having survived testicular cancer. He is also the founder and chairman of the Lance Armstrong Foundation for cancer research and support...

. The 19th to have done it is Cédric Vasseur
Cédric Vasseur
Cédric Vasseur is a French former professional road racing cyclist. He was born in Hazebrouck, France and currently resides in Lille with his wife and young son...

.

Childhood

Virenque, his parents, his brother Lionel and sister Nathalie lived in the Iseba district of Casablanca. The family was affluent, employing both a gardener and a nurse. His mother described Richard as a gentle, kind boy, full of life, who enjoyed helping her in the garden. His idol was Michael Jackson
Michael Jackson
Michael Joseph Jackson was an American recording artist, entertainer, and businessman. Referred to as the King of Pop, or by his initials MJ, Jackson is recognized as the most successful entertainer of all time by Guinness World Records...

. His father, Jacques, ran a tyre company. As a child, Virenque began cycling by riding round the garden of the family's house. "It wasn't much of a bike," he said. "It had no mudguards, no brakes, and I had to scrape my foot along the ground to stop." Virenque often skipped school to fish on the beach. He told a court during the Festina doping inquiry (see below):
The family moved to La Londe-les-Maures
La Londe-les-Maures
La Londe-les-Maures is a commune in the Var department in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region in southeastern France.-References:*...

, near the Côte d'Azur, in 1979 when he was nine. There his father failed to find the same sort of job and relations between his parents suffered. Jacques and Bérangère VirenqueVirenque's mother, Bérangère, was born in the Alpes-Maritimes region of France, the daughter of a public works entrepreneur. She moved to Morocco when she was young and spent her childhood there. She gained qualifications as a hairdresser and beautician but never worked, at the request of her father and of her husband. divorced soon afterwards and Virenque said he was devastated.

He couldn't stand being in school any longer than he had to, he said, and he left to work as a plumber.

Early career

Cycle-racing did not immediately inspire Virenque. His brother, Lionel, cycled, read specialist magazines and watched the Tour de France on television.

He rode for the Vélo Club Hyèrois from the age of 13 where, encouraged by his grandfather, he took out his first licence with the Fédération Française de Cyclisme
Fédération Française de Cyclisme
The French Cycling Federation or FFC is the national governing body of cycle racing in France.The FFC is a member of the UCI and the UEC...

 He said he knew he could climb well from the start.
His first win was in a race round the town at La Valette-du-Var
La Valette-du-Var
La Valette-du-Var is a commune in the Var department in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region in southeastern France.- Celebrity connection :...

, when he and another rider, Pascale Ranucci, lapped the field. He then did his national service
National service
National service is a common name for mandatory government service programmes . The term became common British usage during and for some years following the Second World War. Many young people spent one or more years in such programmes...

 in the army battalion at Joinville in Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...

 to which talented sportsmen were often sent.Laurent Jalabert had already done his national service in the army's 'sports specialist' battalion at Joinville in Paris; Jean-Cyril Robin, Eddy Seigneur, Philippe Ermenault and others were there at the same time as Virenque. Robin recalled a quiet, thoughtful man who, the moment anything started, dedicated himself to it. "He really joined in in war exercises," he told Vélo. He remembered an incident when Virenque walked across a frozen lake for a bet, followed by a hail of stones and rocks in an effort to break the ice. He spent his last period as an amateur with the ASPTTASPTT - Association Sportive Poste Téléphones Télégrams, a national grouping of sports clubs associated with the former PTT, the national communications organisation. The ASPTT still exists but without its former close links to the post office. in Paris.

In 1990 he came eighth in the world championship road race at Utsunomiya, Tochigi
Utsunomiya, Tochigi
is the capital and most populous city of Tochigi Prefecture, Japan. In October 2010 the city had an estimated population of 510,416 and a population density of 1,224.49 people per square kilometer. The total area is 416.84 km². had a population of 888,005 in the 2000 Census...

 in Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...

, riding une course d'enferColloquially, riding une course d'enfer would translate as "like a bat out of hell." to impress Marc Braillon, the head of the professional team, RMO, said Pascal Lino
Pascal Lino
Pascal Lino is a French former road racing cyclist, who was born in Sartrouville, Yvelines.Lino turned professional in 1988, and is most famous for being the wearer of the yellow jersey of the 1992 Tour de France for 11 days...

. "I was riding like a kamikaze. I rode out of my skin," Virenque said. It worked: Braillon offered him a contract.

Professional career

He turned professional for RMO in January 1991. Lino said:
When I saw him arrive in the team, I soon understood. He was scared of nothing and he mouthed off at the slightest thing. From his first races, it was a festival, particularly at the Tour Med... We were riding at 60kmh and he attacked and held the peloton in respect for two kilometres. On the other hand, he was less impressive in the team time-trials."


Virenque rode his first Tour de France in 1992 as a replacement for another team member, Jean-Philippe Dojwa. He was earning 15,000 francs a month. He said he dreamed only of "being able to follow the best in the mountains, riders like Claudio Chiappucci
Claudio Chiappucci
Claudio Chiappucci is a retired Italian professional cyclist. He was on the podium three times in the Tour de France general classification - second in 1990, third in 1991 and second again in 1992.-Career:...

, Indurain, LeMond, Thierry Claveyrolat
Thierry Claveyrolat
Thierry Claveyrolat was a French road bicycle racer. He was King of the Mountains in the 1990 Tour de France.- Racing career :...

." On the third day he took the maillot jaune of leadership after a long breakaway with two other riders on the col de Marie-Blanque
Col de Marie-Blanque
Col de Marie-Blanque is a mountain pass in the western Pyrenees in the department of Pyrénées-Atlantiques in France. The pass is situated south-east of Oloron-Sainte-Marie and connects the valleys of the Aspe and the Ossau rivers....

 in the Pyrenees
Pyrenees
The Pyrenees is a range of mountains in southwest Europe that forms a natural border between France and Spain...

. He held it for a day, losing it next day to his team-mate Pascal Lino
Pascal Lino
Pascal Lino is a French former road racing cyclist, who was born in Sartrouville, Yvelines.Lino turned professional in 1988, and is most famous for being the wearer of the yellow jersey of the 1992 Tour de France for 11 days...

, who led for the next two weeks. Virenque finished second in the climbers' competition.

He said of his talent in the mountains:
Virenque was sought by several teams after his first Tour and Cyrille Guimard
Cyrille Guimard
Cyrille Guimard is a French former professional road racing cyclist who became a directeur sportif and then a television commentator...

 said at the world championship at Benidorm
Benidorm
Benidorm is a coastal town and municipality located in the comarca of Marina Baixa, in the province of Alicante, Valencian community, Spain, by the Western Mediterranean....

 that he had arranged for him to join his Castorama
Castorama
Castorama is a French retailer of DIY and home improvement tools and supplies. It has its head office in Templemars.The company became a subsidiary of Kingfisher plc in 1998, along with Castorama's own subsidiary Brico Dépôt. Some outlets have been converted or relocated under the Brico Dépôt DIY...

 team, where he would replace Laurent Fignon
Laurent Fignon
Laurent Patrick Fignon was a French professional road bicycle racer. He won the Tour de France in 1983 and in 1984. He missed winning it a third time, in 1989, by 8 seconds, the closest margin ever to decide the tour. He also won the Giro d'Italia in 1989, after having been the runner-up in 1984,...

. But the announcement was premature and Virenque joined another French team, Festina. He stayed there until the team dissolved in the wake of a doping scandal in 1998 (see below).

Virenque first wore the yellow jersey of the Tour de France in 1992 and for the last time in 2003. In 2003 he won the stage to Morzine
Morzine
Morzine is a commune in the Haute-Savoie department in the Rhône-Alpes region in eastern France with panoramic mountain views, modern ski facilities and hotels and restaurants. The ski resort of Avoriaz is located on the territory of the commune...

 and wore the jersey on the climb of Alpe d'Huez
Alpe d'Huez
L'Alpe d'Huez is a ski resort at . It is a mountain pasture in the Central French Alps, in the commune of Huez, in the Isère département in the Rhône-Alpes region.-Tour de France:L'Alpe d'Huez is one of the main mountains in the Tour de France...

. He recalled:
Virenque was a talented climber but a modest time-triallist
Individual time trial
An individual time trial is a road bicycle race in which cyclists race alone against the clock . There are also track-based time trials where riders compete in velodromes, and team time trials...

. He was coached for time-trials by Jeannie Longo
Jeannie Longo
Jeannie Longo is a French racing cyclist, multiple French champion and 13 times world champion. Longo is still active in cycling as of 2011 and is widely considered one of the greatest female cyclists of all time...

 and her husband.

Festina affair

In 1998 the Festina cycling team
Festina cycling team
Festina is a former professional cycling team that was active in the professional peloton from 1989 to 2001. The team was sponsored by the watch manufacturers Festina Lotus AV.-Beginnings:...

 was disgraced by a doping scandal (see Doping at the Tour de France
Doping at the Tour de France
There have been allegations of doping in the Tour de France since the race began in 1903. Early Tour riders consumed alcohol and used ether, among other substances, as a means of dulling the pain of competing in endurance cycling...

) after a soigneur, Willy Voet
Willy Voet
Willy Voet is a Belgian sports physiotherapist. He is most widely known for his involvement in the Festina affair in the 1998 Tour de France ....

, was found when crossing from Belgium
Belgium
Belgium , officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a federal state in Western Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters, and those of several other major international organisations such as NATO.Belgium is also a member of, or affiliated to, many...

 to France to have drugs used for doping. They were, said John Lichfield, the Paris correspondent of The Independent
The Independent
The Independent is a British national morning newspaper published in London by Independent Print Limited, owned by Alexander Lebedev since 2010. It is nicknamed the Indy, while the Sunday edition, The Independent on Sunday, is the Sindy. Launched in 1986, it is one of the youngest UK national daily...

in Britain: "235 doses of erythropoietin (EPO), an artificial hormone which boosts the red cells (and therefore endurance) but can thicken the blood to fatal levels if not controlled properly. They also found 82 doses of a muscle-strengthening hormone called Sauratropine,; 60 doses of Pantestone, a derivative of testosterone, which boosts body strength but can cause cancer; and sundry pain-deadening corticoids and energy-fuelling amphetamines." Bruno Roussel, Virenque's directeur sportif
Directeur sportif
A directeur sportif is a person directing a cycling team during a road bicycle racing event...

, told L'Équipe
L'Équipe
L'Équipe is a French nationwide daily newspaper devoted to sports, owned by Éditions Philippe Amaury. The paper is noted for coverage of football , rugby, motorsports and cycling...

 that Virenque responded to the news by saying: Virenque's teammates, Christophe Moreau
Christophe Moreau
Christophe Moreau is a French former professional road racing cyclist. For many years Moreau was the primary French contender for the general classification in the Tour de France: he finished in the top 12 in the GC five times and finished the race as best Frenchman in 2000, 2003, 2004 and 2005...

, Laurent Brochard
Laurent Brochard
Laurent Brochard is a retired professional road racing cyclist from France. In 1997 he won a stage of the Tour de France and became world road champion in San Sebastián, Spain....

 and Armin Meier, admitted taking EPO after being arrested during the Tour and were disqualified. Virenque maintained his innocence.
While his former team-mates were served six-month suspensions and returned to racing in spring 1999, Virenque changed teams to Polti
Team Polti
Team Polti is a former Italian professional cycling team. Polti became an independent team back in 1994, after the separation of Lampre-Polti, and was active until 2000. Team Polti began in 1994 with Gianluigi Stanga as directeur sportif and Vittorio Algeri and Claudio Corti as managers. The team...

 in January 1999 and prepared for the 1999 Tour
1999 Tour de France
The 1999 Tour de France was the 86th Tour de France, taking place from July 3 to July 25, 1999. It was won by Lance Armstrong, his first of 7 consecutive wins, the most in Tour history. There were no French stage winners for the first time since the 1926 Tour de France.The 1999 edition of Tour de...

 by riding the Giro d'Italia
1999 Giro d'Italia
The 1999 Giro d'Italia of cycling, the 82nd edition of the race, was held from 15 May to 6 June 1999. It covered in 22 stages. It was won by the Italian Ivan Gotti....

, in which he won a stage. Another Italian, his team-mate Enrico Cassani, said Virenque was referred to in Italy as "the shit". He said: "When he arrived, we were originally against him. Then, very quickly, we saw he knew how to live and to joke and we respected him. He proved he had some character, some personality."

A few weeks later Virenque's name emerged in an inquiry into Bernard Sainz
Bernard Sainz
Bernard Sainz, aka Dr Mabuse, was an unlicensed sports doctor who achieved great success in horse racing and cycling. He was jailed for falsely practising medicine, particularly in cycle racing.-Background:...

, the so-called Dr Mabuse of cycling who was later jailed for practising as an unqualified doctor. Franco Polti, the head of Virenque's team, fined him 30 million lire.

Race director Jean-Marie Leblanc
Jean-Marie Leblanc
Jean-Marie Leblanc is a French retired professional road bicycle racer who was general director of the Tour de France from 1989 to 2005, when he reached pensionable age and was succeeded by Christian Prudhomme.He became a professional in 1966 and rode until 1971...

 banned Virenque from the 1999 Tour de France
1999 Tour de France
The 1999 Tour de France was the 86th Tour de France, taking place from July 3 to July 25, 1999. It was won by Lance Armstrong, his first of 7 consecutive wins, the most in Tour history. There were no French stage winners for the first time since the 1926 Tour de France.The 1999 edition of Tour de...

 but was obliged to accept him after a ruling by the Union Cycliste Internationale
Union Cycliste Internationale
Union Cycliste Internationale is the world governing body for sports cycling and oversees international competitive cycling events. The UCI is based in Aigle, Switzerland....

. Lichfield wrote in The Independent:

"The sport of road-race cycling (and it may not be the only one) is like an alcoholic, refusing to accept that it has a problem, as long as it drinks in secrecy. That fact was shamefully proved once again this week when the sport's governing body - the International Cycling Union (UCI) - forced the 1999 Tour to accept Richard Virenque... The baby-faced Virenque faces possible criminal charges of drug-taking and drug-trafficking. Despite his denials, French judicial investigators say they have documentary evidence that he has been doping himself for years. The Tour said last month that he was 'not welcome.' The UCI insisted on Tuesday that he must ride. The Tour gave way. So much for ethical purity."


Cycling Weekly in Britain called it "a major blow" to the Tour's organisers. Leblanc said he hoped Virenque would not win.Virenque had been asked to stay away from the 1999 Tour de France
1999 Tour de France
The 1999 Tour de France was the 86th Tour de France, taking place from July 3 to July 25, 1999. It was won by Lance Armstrong, his first of 7 consecutive wins, the most in Tour history. There were no French stage winners for the first time since the 1926 Tour de France.The 1999 edition of Tour de...

 along with Manolo Saiz
Manolo Saiz
Manuel "Manolo" Saiz Balbás is the former team manager of one of the most successful Spanish professional road bicycle racing teams, first called Team ONCE, then Liberty Seguros-Würth, Astana-Würth, and lastly Astana Team.Saiz was a hands-on manager and directeur sportif...

, manager of a Spanish team who in withdrawing his riders from the 1998 Tour said he had "stuffed [his] finger up the Tour's arse." Virenque's lawyers depended on a clause in the UCI's rules, number 1.2.048, which says tour organisers must say at least 30 days before a race whom they wished to admit. The Tour had not done so. The UCI also obliged the Tour to accept Saiz.


Virenque rode, at his team's request, on a bicycle painted white with red dots to resemble the polkadot jersey of best climber and he travelled between stages with a bodyguard, Gilles Pagliuca. That year, he wrote Ma Vérité, a book which asserted his innocence and included comments of how doping must be fought. He wrote that his team-mates confessed to using EPO because of pressure from the police. He said Moreau's urine showed EPO had not been detected. Procycling
Procycling
Procycling, or ProCycling, is a bicycling sport magazine owned by Future Publishing. First published in April 1999, there are 13 issues a year distributed in all countries where there are English speaking readers....

wrote:

"The 200 or so pages of Ma Vérité camouflage this dodgy logic [that Virenque never took drugs because he was never caught taking drugs] with sometimes justifiable grievances against the breaches of confidence that have fed the press since the scandal broke. But they also skirt the substantive issues with tedious consistency. Readers after la vérité won't find it in Ma Vérité and fans who have invested emotions in Virenque's sporting career deserve better. If he's innocent, how does Virenque counter the accusations against him coming from all quarters? The answer is: he doesn't even attempt to. Virenque pathetically observes the peloton's custom of keeping mum: he never mentions coming into contact with doping practices, directly or indirectly. He doesn't describe techniques or list substances. He doesn't name names... he carries on as if the problem didn't exist. After all that has happened in the past year, there can be only one reason to buy a book by Richard Virenque: to read a detailed denial of involvement in doping, or a full, contrite confession. Ma Vérité has neither: and integrity is virtually undetectable too."


The Festina affair led to a trial in Lille
Lille
Lille is a city in northern France . It is the principal city of the Lille Métropole, the fourth-largest metropolitan area in the country behind those of Paris, Lyon and Marseille. Lille is situated on the Deûle River, near France's border with Belgium...

, northern France, in October 2000. Virenque was a witness with others from the former Festina team. He at first denied he had doped himself but then confessed. "Oui, je me suis dopé", he told the court's president, Daniel Delegove, on 24 October. But he denied doping himself intentionally. Voet said he was aware of what he was doing and participated in trafficking between cyclists. Virenque said this happened without his approval. That led the satirical television programme, Les Guignols de l'info
Les Guignols de l'info
Les Guignols de l'info is a satirical latex puppet show broadcast on Canal+, a French subscription-based television channel. Hosted by a puppet facsimile of TF1 news anchor Patrick Poivre d'Arvor, Les Guignols is similar to the 1984–1996 British show Spitting Image...

- which displayed Virenque as a moronic rubber puppet with hypodermics in his head - to change his words to "à l'insu de mon plein gré" ("willingly but without knowing"), and the phrase passed into French popular culture as a sign of hypocritical
Hypocrisy
Hypocrisy is the state of pretending to have virtues, moral or religious beliefs, principles, etc., that one does not actually have. Hypocrisy involves the deception of others and is thus a kind of lie....

 denial
Denial
Denial is a defense mechanism postulated by Sigmund Freud, in which a person is faced with a fact that is too uncomfortable to accept and rejects it instead, insisting that it is not true despite what may be overwhelming evidence.The subject may use:* simple denial: deny the reality of the...

.The phrase "willingly but without knowing" returns in a later sketch by 'Les Guignols de l'info', in which Virenque mistakes tennis player Amélie Mauresmo for a cyclist: video at http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-1203579429921376149 Voet wrote a book, Massacre à la Chaîne, published in a legally-censored English edition as Breaking the Chain, in which he came close to identifying Virenque as an unrepentant doper.

Post-trial reaction

Virenque was criticised by the media and satirists for his denial in the face of increasing evidence and his pretence of having been doped without his knowledge. Voet wrote in Le Journal du Dimanche
Le Journal du Dimanche
Le Journal du Dimanche is a French weekly newspaper. It is only published on Sundays.-History:The newspaper was created by Pierre_Lazareffin 1948. It now belongs to the Lagardère Group, through Hachette Filipacchi Médias...

that he preferred Virenque as a young pro "because he didn't dope himself much". Many former colleagues shunned him, remembering his arrogance and criticism, but his agent,Eric Boyer
Eric Boyer
Eric Boyer was a French professional road bicycle racer. In the 1988 Tour de France, Boyer finished on the 5th place in the overall classification. Boyer won a stage in the 1991 Giro d'Italia. After his cycling career, Boyer worked for television and newspapers. He is currently manager of the...

, later manager of the Cofidis
Cofidis
Cofidis is a French company, one of the Otto Group's financial services providers.Founded in 1982 by 3 Suisses International in cooperation with Cetelem, Cofidis specializes in the consumer credit business of the 3 Suisses Group....

 team, said:

"He shouldn't have had to pay for the lack of awareness [inconscience] of previous generations, mine and those which preceded it. It was too easy. He became the symbol of doping in cycling but he did only what the others did. He suffered for all that had gone before [Il a reçu ce fléau en héritage]. He deserved to be sanctioned severely, and he was. There shouldn't be more than that. In my opinion the Festina affair was just the outcome of what had been going on for many years. Richard walked into it willingly. Nobody made him. He was looking to improve his performances. But he shouldn't have to pay for three or four generations of cycling that did nothing about it."


Virenque's mother, Bérangère, said:
"[Richard] weeps, he speaks. It's his strength and his weakness. I was afraid that he would do the worst thing [commit suicide], because he is hypersensitive. I saw him defeated. The way others look at him is important to him. When I heard people in the crowd shout 'doper', I hated it... I thought of all the sacrifices that he made when he was very young, like when he was a kid and he was dropped in a race and that he went off like a mad dog, on impulse. When in the middle of it all he came back to Carqueiranne
Carqueiranne
Carqueiranne is a commune in the Var department in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region in southeastern France.It is known now as a tourist seaside resort with good windsurfing nearby, at Almanarre Beach, and a nudist beach at Ile du Levant....

 [where he still lives], he was in his garage and I took him in my arms. He cried from morning to night. Why did it take him so long to confess it to us, to talk to us? I don't know. I told him: 'Be brave, son. Whatever you do, think of your children. It's they who will live on after you.'"


Virenque lived near Geneva
Geneva
Geneva In the national languages of Switzerland the city is known as Genf , Ginevra and Genevra is the second-most-populous city in Switzerland and is the most populous city of Romandie, the French-speaking part of Switzerland...

 in Switzerland
Switzerland
Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....

 and the Swiss cycling association suspended him for nine months. The president of the committee which imposed the ban, Bernard Welten, said he deserved a severe penalty because he was one of the biggest drug-takers in the team. The president of the French federation, Daniel Baal, said nine months was halfway between the minimum penalty of six months and the maximum of a year for a first-time offence. The sentence was reduced by an independent tribunal to six and a half. He was fined the equivalent of 2,600 euros and told to pay 1,300 euros in costs. He became depressed. "I had to realise that I wasn't anything any more," he said. His wife Stéphanie said he put on two sizes in clothes and 10 kg more than his racing weight.The extra weight (10kg) has been much quoted but Virenque told a meeting of readers of the French magazine, Vélo, that it wasn't unusual for him to put on that much weight in the winter. He wept repeatedly. She said she would stay with him and support him only if they moved back in the south of France after four years in Switzerland.

In the meantime they had the help of a prominent neighbour, Laurent Jalabert
Laurent Jalabert
Laurent Jalabert is a French former professional road racing cyclist, from 1989 to 2002. Affectionately known as "Jaja" , he won many one-day and stage races and was ranked number 1 in the 1990s...

. The two had not been friends and did not see each other much in Switzerland. Then, Jalabert opened links by getting his wife, Sylvie, to ask Stéphanie Virenque for the loan of a vacuum cleaner that she didn't actually need. Jalabert said that later, "Richard called me one day when my wife and I were getting ready to move house. He was desperate to help us even though we didn't really need any help. It was then that I realised his distress. He spent the whole day taking the furniture apart and putting it back together again. It's odd, but that day did him an awful lot of good." Jalabert and his wife Sylvie said that, as a souvenir, they had kept the doors of one of their closets upside down because that was the way Virenque had fitted them.

The two men began training together.Virenque began training with Jalabert who was recovering from a fall while working on his house. Virenque said they made their comeback rides together, although he said he was in the worse shape "I was in a rotten condition physically and my heart suffered at the slightest effort and my muscles had melted." When Virenque retired Jalabert wrote in an open letter:
"We used to go out every day at 10am, because you're not much of a morning person. There was a time in our career, you know like me, Richard, when were a bit cold to each other. We were rivals, we were chasing the same objectives and the press set us up against each other.
When we trained together was when I found out who you were, someone who's good deep down. Close to people, with a good heart as well. You told me you missed the sun of the south, and your friends. It seemed to you that everybody had abandoned you. You had the air of suffering, of needing to confide in someone. That hurt me to see you like that, you with your fame, to have fallen so far. A sort of complicity began between us. Afterwards, in 2002, we had a good battle for the polkadot jersey. That embarrassed me, to fight against you, but it was the same for you."


Virenque and his family moved back to France as his wife asked. Jalabert followed shortly after his own career ended.

Post-suspension career

Few teams were willing to consider him when he completed his suspension and only a few friends kept in touch. Samuel Abt of the International Herald Tribune
International Herald Tribune
The International Herald Tribune is a widely read English language international newspaper. It combines the resources of its own correspondents with those of The New York Times and is printed at 38 sites throughout the world, for sale in more than 160 countries and territories...

, wrote:

"Mocked now and entirely abandoned, Richard Virenque responds with the spirit of the adolescent he remains. In a temper tantrum, he said this week that he is through with professional bicycle racing. If the sport doesn't need him, he raged, he doesn't need it. (Offstage sounds of feet being stamped and doors being slammed.) Nobody loves him. 'He would love to continue and make dreams come true,' his older brother explained, 'but he is not being given that chance.' In other, less shimmering words, because of his involvement in the doping scandal, none of the 20 or so top teams is willing to hire the star climber and team leader at his salary of about $1.6 million a year. Alas for him, many of those teams are not willing to hire him at any salary. His years of cockiness, his frequent and public criticism of rivals, his many small snubs are not forgotten. Virenque has become - made himself - extremely damaged goods."


Cofidis was said to be interested but not in his first year back. Jean Delatour, with whom Virenque trained in the winter,The 'Jean Delatour' team told L'Équipe in January 2001 that Virenque had ridden with its riders only because the team was holding a training camp in Virenque's region and that he had come only to see friends said it could be interested if it found more sponsorship. On 5 July 2001 he joined Domo-Farm Frites, with the help of the former Tour de France winner, Eddy Merckx
Eddy Merckx
Edouard Louis Joseph, Baron Merckx , better known as Eddy Merckx, is a Belgian former professional cyclist. The French magazine Vélo called him "the most accomplished rider that cycling has ever known." The American publication, VeloNews, called him the greatest and most successful cyclist of all...

 who, as supplier of the team's bikes, put up the extra money that the main sponsors would not. He was paid the equivalent of £800 a month, the minimum wage, for the last three months of the year and the same salary for which he had first turned professional in 1992. Domo kept him the following season, after Farm Frites withdrew as co-sponsor, because it wanted to expand its carpet business in France. On 25 October 2002, on the eve of the Tour de France presentation at the Palais des Congres in Paris, he signed for another two years.

Virenque returned to prominence by winning Paris–Tours on 7 October 2001 in a day-long breakaway in which he dropped Jacky Durand
Jacky Durand
Jacky Durand is a retired French professional road bicycle racer. Durand had an attacking style, winning the Ronde van Vlaanderen in 1992 after a breakaway, and three stages in the Tour de France....

 and crossed the line seconds ahead of the peloton
Peloton
The peloton , field, bunch or pack is the large main group of riders in a road bicycle race. Riders in a group save energy by riding close near other riders...

. Paris–Tours is a flat race that favours sprinters and not climbers. "It was a typical Virenque moment," Fotheringham wrote, "with a yell of anger as he crossed the line 'for all those who tried to destroy me'". The French magazine, Vélo, called the victory "extraordinary." L'Équipe 's one-word headline on the front page was "Unbelievable!"

Virenque said:
While Virenque was bettered by Laurent Jalabert
Laurent Jalabert
Laurent Jalabert is a French former professional road racing cyclist, from 1989 to 2002. Affectionately known as "Jaja" , he won many one-day and stage races and was ranked number 1 in the 1990s...

 in the 2001 and 2002 Tour de France for the King of the Mountains competition, he won his sixth polka dot jersey
Polka dot jersey
The Mountains classification in the Tour de France is a secondary classification in the Tour de France, in which cyclists receive points for reaching a mountain top first...

 in 2003 to tie with Federico Bahamontes
Federico Bahamontes
Federico Martín Bahamontes is a Spanish former professional road racing cyclist.-Biography:Bahamontes was born in Santo Domingo-Caudilla , of Cuban descent. His family was devastated during the Spanish civil war and Bahamontes' father, Julián, took the family to Madrid as refugees...

 and Lucien Van Impe
Lucien Van Impe
Lucien van Impe was a Belgian cyclist from 1969 to 1987. He excelled mainly as a climber in multiple-day races such as the Tour de France...

. His day-long breakaway also saw him wear the yellow jersey. In 2004 he won the King of the Mountains
King of the Mountains
The King of the Mountains is the title given to the best climber in a cycling road race; usually and officially known as the Mountains classification...

 for a record seventh time. Van Impe criticised Virenque for being opportunistic rather than the best climber; he said he had himself refrained from breaking Bahamontes' record himself out of reverence.
Virenque said they were jealous.

Virenque ran into trouble again in 2002 when he appeared on a television programme, Tout le Monde en Parle, in June. The presenter, Thierry Ardisson
Thierry Ardisson
Thierry Ardisson , is a French television producer and host.-Bibliography:*T. Ardisson & Alain Decaux, Cinemoi*T.Ardisson & Alain Decaux, Rive droite*T.Ardisson et Alain Decaux, Louis XX*T.Ardisson, Pondichéry...

, asked him: "If you were sure of winning the Tour by being doped but knew you would not get caught, would you do it?" Virenque replied: The programme was recorded to be broadcast as-live. Ardisson said that Virenque asked after the recording finished that his answer be cut out. Ardisson said: "It was very naive, very Virenque. But it's a shame that, once again, he didn't want to tell the truth."

Retirement

Virenque rode the Olympic Games road race in Athens
Athens
Athens , is the capital and largest city of Greece. Athens dominates the Attica region and is one of the world's oldest cities, as its recorded history spans around 3,400 years. Classical Athens was a powerful city-state...

 and decided to retire, a decision he announced at the Olympia theatre in Paris on September 24, 2004. His wife had suggested continuing one more season, he said. He stayed in the public eye, winning Je suis une célébrité, sortez-moi de là! (the French version of I'm a Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here!) in Brazil
Brazil
Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...

 in April 2006. In autumn 2005 he opened Virenque Design, a company to design and sell jewellery
often featuring the number 7, representing his wins in the King of the Mountains. Since 2005 he has been a consultant commentator for Eurosport
Eurosport
Eurosport is a pan-European television sport network operated by French broadcaster TF1 Group. The network of channels are available in 59 countries, in 20 different languages providing viewers with European and international sporting events...

, alongside Jacky Durand and Jean-François Bernard
Jean-François Bernard
Jean-François Bernard is a former French professional road bicycle racer. He turned professional in 1984 for La Vie Claire, led by Bernard Hinault...

 and the journalist, Patrick Chassé, where he is described as a "modest competitor" to Laurent Jalabert, the specialist on the rival state network. He has also promoted an energy drink and a pharmacy company.

On 11 August 2006, Virenque was taken to hospital at Moûtiers
Moutiers
Moutiers and Les Moutiers is the name or part of the name of several communes in France:*Moutiers, in the Eure-et-Loir département*Moutiers, in the Ille-et-Vilaine département*Moutiers, in the Meurthe-et-Moselle département...

 and transferred to Grenoble
Grenoble
Grenoble is a city in southeastern France, at the foot of the French Alps where the river Drac joins the Isère. Located in the Rhône-Alpes region, Grenoble is the capital of the department of Isère...

 after falling during a mountain-bike race at Méribel. He broke his nose and needed 32 stitches to his face. Hitting his head led to feelings of worry and of depression, he said, and he lost his sense of smell.

Personal life

In December 2007, Virenque and his wife, Stéphanie, divorced after 17 years together. They have two children, Clara and Dario. Virenque said:
In 2008 he was associated with a 20-year-old model, Jessica Sow, with whom he made a drinks commercial.

Eric Boyer said of Virenque's retirement:
"Richard has character, a strong personality. He doesn't let himself go. He looks forwards, never behind. Today, he is a personality [un people]. His return to everyday life has been a success but money isn't an end in itself."


Virenque lives at Carqueiranne
Carqueiranne
Carqueiranne is a commune in the Var department in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region in southeastern France.It is known now as a tourist seaside resort with good windsurfing nearby, at Almanarre Beach, and a nudist beach at Ile du Levant....

 in the Var region. He is fond of marmot
Marmot
The marmots are a genus, Marmota, of squirrels. There are 14 species in this genus.Marmots are generally large ground squirrels. Those most often referred to as marmots tend to live in mountainous areas such as the Alps, northern Apennines, Eurasian steppes, Carpathians, Tatras, and Pyrenees in...

s, dancing, wine, gardening and flowers. "Put me in a good garden nursery and I'm in heaven," he says.

Palmarès

  • Seven polkadot jerseys in the Tour de France
    Tour de France
    The Tour de France is an annual bicycle race held in France and nearby countries. First staged in 1903, the race covers more than and lasts three weeks. As the best known and most prestigious of cycling's three "Grand Tours", the Tour de France attracts riders and teams from around the world. The...

    : 1994
    1994 Tour de France
    The 1994 Tour de France was the 81st Tour de France and included two stages in England , Stage 4, Dover to Brighton and Stage 5, around Portsmouth. It took place July 2 to July 24, 1994...

    , 1995
    1995 Tour de France
    The 1995 Tour de France was the 82nd Tour de France, taking place July 1 to July 23, 1995. It was Miguel Indurain's fifth and final victory in the Tour. On the fifteenth stage Italian rider Fabio Casartelli died after an accident on the Col de Portet d'Aspet....

    , 1996
    1996 Tour de France
    The 1996 Tour de France was the 83rd Tour de France, starting on June 29 and ending on July 21, featuring 19 regular stages, 2 individual time trials, a prologue and a rest day ....

    , 1997
    1997 Tour de France
    The 1997 Tour de France was the 84th Tour de France, it took place July 5–27, 1997. Jan Ullrich's victory margin, of 9' 09" was the largest margin of victory since Laurent Fignon won the 1984 Tour de France by 10' 32"...

    , 1999
    1999 Tour de France
    The 1999 Tour de France was the 86th Tour de France, taking place from July 3 to July 25, 1999. It was won by Lance Armstrong, his first of 7 consecutive wins, the most in Tour history. There were no French stage winners for the first time since the 1926 Tour de France.The 1999 edition of Tour de...

    , 2003
    2003 Tour de France
    The 2003 Tour de France started and ended in Paris. Lasting from July 5 to July 27 the race covered 3,427.5 km , proceeding clockwise in twenty stages around France, including six major mountain stages...

    , 2004
    2004 Tour de France
    The 2004 Tour de France was the 91st, taking place from July 3 to July 25, 2004. It consisted of 20 stages over 3391 km.Lance Armstrong became the first to win six Tours de France. Armstrong had been favored to win, his competitors seen as being German Jan Ullrich, Spaniards Roberto Heras and...

  • Seven mountain wins: 1994 Luz Ardiden; 1995 Cauterets; 1997 Courchevel; 2000, Morzine; 2002 Mont Ventoux; 2003, Morzine; 2004, Saint-Flour
  • Paris–Tours 2001
  • Trophée des grimpeurs: 1994
  • Tour du Piémont: 1996
  • Grand Prix La Marseillaise: 1997
  • Bol d'or des Monedières 1992
  • Circuit de l'Aulne 1994
  • Critérium de Castillon-la-Bataille
    Castillon-la-Bataille
    Castillon-la-Bataille is a commune in the Gironde department in Aquitaine in southwestern France.This area was the site of the last battle of the Hundred Years' War, the Battle of Castillon fought July 17, 1453....

     1995, 1997, 2002, 2004
  • Stage win, Tour du Limousin en 1993
  • Stage win, Giro d'Italia 1999
  • 4 stages, Critérium du Dauphiné libéré: 1995 (2), 1996 (1), 1998 (1)
  • Stage win, Route du Sud 1994
  • Critérium de Vayrac: 1996, 1997
  • 2nd national road championship 2003; 3rd 1998
  • 3rd world road championship 1994

Tour de France

  • Tour de France 1992
    1992 Tour de France
    The 1992 Tour de France was the 79th Tour de France, taking place July 4 to July 26, 1992. The total race distance was 21 stages over 3983 km, with riders averaging 39.504 km/h...

    : 25th one day in yellow
  • Tour de France 1993
    1993 Tour de France
    The 1993 Tour de France was the 80th Tour de France, taking place July 3 to July 25, 1993. It consisted of 20 stages, over 3714.3 km, ridden at an average speed of 38.709 km/h....

    : 19th
  • Tour de France 1994
    1994 Tour de France
    The 1994 Tour de France was the 81st Tour de France and included two stages in England , Stage 4, Dover to Brighton and Stage 5, around Portsmouth. It took place July 2 to July 24, 1994...

    : 5th, one stage win and best climber
  • Tour de France 1995
    1995 Tour de France
    The 1995 Tour de France was the 82nd Tour de France, taking place July 1 to July 23, 1995. It was Miguel Indurain's fifth and final victory in the Tour. On the fifteenth stage Italian rider Fabio Casartelli died after an accident on the Col de Portet d'Aspet....

     : 9th, one stage win and best climber
  • Tour de France 1996
    1996 Tour de France
    The 1996 Tour de France was the 83rd Tour de France, starting on June 29 and ending on July 21, featuring 19 regular stages, 2 individual time trials, a prologue and a rest day ....

     : 3rd, best climber
  • Tour de France 1997
    1997 Tour de France
    The 1997 Tour de France was the 84th Tour de France, it took place July 5–27, 1997. Jan Ullrich's victory margin, of 9' 09" was the largest margin of victory since Laurent Fignon won the 1984 Tour de France by 10' 32"...

     : 2nd, one stage win and best climber
  • Tour de France 1998
    1998 Tour de France
    The 1998 Tour de France, also called the Tour du Dopage , was marred by doping scandals throughout known as the Festina affair, starting with the arrest of Willy Voet, a soigneur in the French Festina team. Voet was traveling into France when he was arrested and found with large quantities of...

     : disqualified
  • Tour de France 1999
    1999 Tour de France
    The 1999 Tour de France was the 86th Tour de France, taking place from July 3 to July 25, 1999. It was won by Lance Armstrong, his first of 7 consecutive wins, the most in Tour history. There were no French stage winners for the first time since the 1926 Tour de France.The 1999 edition of Tour de...

     : 8th, best climber
  • Tour de France 2000
    2000 Tour de France
    The 2000 Tour de France was the 87th Tour de France, and took place from July 1 to July 23, 2000. It was won by American cyclist Lance Armstrong. The Tour started with an individual time trial in Futuroscope and ended traditionally in Paris. The distance travelled was 3662.5 km...

     : 6th, one stage win
  • Tour de France 2002
    2002 Tour de France
    The 2002 Tour de France started in Luxembourg on July 6, 2002, and ended in Paris on July 28. France was visited counter-clockwise, so the Pyrenees were there before the Alps...

     : 16th, one stage win
  • Tour de France 2003
    2003 Tour de France
    The 2003 Tour de France started and ended in Paris. Lasting from July 5 to July 27 the race covered 3,427.5 km , proceeding clockwise in twenty stages around France, including six major mountain stages...

     : 16th, one stage win one day in yellow best climber
  • Tour de France 2004 : 15th, one stage win and best climber

Grand Tour General Classification results timeline

Grand Tour 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004
Giro
Giro d'Italia
The Giro d'Italia , also simply known as The Giro, is a long distance road bicycle racing stage race for professional cyclists held over three weeks in May/early June in and around Italy. The Giro is one of the three Grand Tours , and is part of the UCI World Ranking calendar...

- - - - - - - 14
1999 Giro d'Italia
The 1999 Giro d'Italia of cycling, the 82nd edition of the race, was held from 15 May to 6 June 1999. It covered in 22 stages. It was won by the Italian Ivan Gotti....

- - - - -
Tour
Tour de France
The Tour de France is an annual bicycle race held in France and nearby countries. First staged in 1903, the race covers more than and lasts three weeks. As the best known and most prestigious of cycling's three "Grand Tours", the Tour de France attracts riders and teams from around the world. The...

25
1992 Tour de France
The 1992 Tour de France was the 79th Tour de France, taking place July 4 to July 26, 1992. The total race distance was 21 stages over 3983 km, with riders averaging 39.504 km/h...

19
1993 Tour de France
The 1993 Tour de France was the 80th Tour de France, taking place July 3 to July 25, 1993. It consisted of 20 stages, over 3714.3 km, ridden at an average speed of 38.709 km/h....

5
1994 Tour de France
The 1994 Tour de France was the 81st Tour de France and included two stages in England , Stage 4, Dover to Brighton and Stage 5, around Portsmouth. It took place July 2 to July 24, 1994...

9
1995 Tour de France
The 1995 Tour de France was the 82nd Tour de France, taking place July 1 to July 23, 1995. It was Miguel Indurain's fifth and final victory in the Tour. On the fifteenth stage Italian rider Fabio Casartelli died after an accident on the Col de Portet d'Aspet....

3
1996 Tour de France
The 1996 Tour de France was the 83rd Tour de France, starting on June 29 and ending on July 21, featuring 19 regular stages, 2 individual time trials, a prologue and a rest day ....

2
1997 Tour de France
The 1997 Tour de France was the 84th Tour de France, it took place July 5–27, 1997. Jan Ullrich's victory margin, of 9' 09" was the largest margin of victory since Laurent Fignon won the 1984 Tour de France by 10' 32"...

WD
1998 Tour de France
The 1998 Tour de France, also called the Tour du Dopage , was marred by doping scandals throughout known as the Festina affair, starting with the arrest of Willy Voet, a soigneur in the French Festina team. Voet was traveling into France when he was arrested and found with large quantities of...

8
1999 Tour de France
The 1999 Tour de France was the 86th Tour de France, taking place from July 3 to July 25, 1999. It was won by Lance Armstrong, his first of 7 consecutive wins, the most in Tour history. There were no French stage winners for the first time since the 1926 Tour de France.The 1999 edition of Tour de...

6
2000 Tour de France
The 2000 Tour de France was the 87th Tour de France, and took place from July 1 to July 23, 2000. It was won by American cyclist Lance Armstrong. The Tour started with an individual time trial in Futuroscope and ended traditionally in Paris. The distance travelled was 3662.5 km...

-
2001 Tour de France
The 2001 Tour de France was particularly difficult, having contained a 67-km long team time trial, two individual time trials and five mountain-top finishes on consecutive days, the second of which being the Chamrousse special category climb time trial. Thus, all the high-mountain stages were...

16
2002 Tour de France
The 2002 Tour de France started in Luxembourg on July 6, 2002, and ended in Paris on July 28. France was visited counter-clockwise, so the Pyrenees were there before the Alps...

16
2003 Tour de France
The 2003 Tour de France started and ended in Paris. Lasting from July 5 to July 27 the race covered 3,427.5 km , proceeding clockwise in twenty stages around France, including six major mountain stages...

15
2004 Tour de France
The 2004 Tour de France was the 91st, taking place from July 3 to July 25, 2004. It consisted of 20 stages over 3391 km.Lance Armstrong became the first to win six Tours de France. Armstrong had been favored to win, his competitors seen as being German Jan Ullrich, Spaniards Roberto Heras and...

Vuelta
Vuelta a España
The Vuelta a España is a three-week road bicycle racing stage race that is one of the three "Grand Tours" of Europe and part of the UCI World Ranking calendar. The race lasts three weeks and attracts cyclists from around the world. The race is broken into day-long segments, called stages...

- - - 5
1995 Vuelta a España
The 50th Vuelta a España , a long-distance bicycle stage race and one of the 3 grand tours, was held from September 2 to September 24, 1995. It consisted of 21 stages covering a total of 3750 km, and was won by Laurent Jalabert of the ONCE cycling team...

- - 11
1998 Vuelta a España
The 53rd edition of the Vuelta a España was held 5 to 27 September 1998 and began in Córdoba and ended in Madrid. The 1998 Vuelta had 22 stages over 3,774 km with the winning average speed of 40.262 km/h....

- 16
2000 Vuelta a España
The 55th Vuelta a España , a long-distance bicycle stage race and one of the 3 grand tours, was held from August 26 to September 17, 2000. It consisted of 21 stages covering a total of 2,904 km, and was won by Roberto Heras of the cycling team.-External links:**...

24
2001 Vuelta a España
The 56th Vuelta a España , a long-distance stage race and one of the 3 Grand Tours, was held from September 8 to September 30, 2001...

- - -


WD = withdrew

Books

  • Ma Vérité 1999 Éditions du Rocher, with C. Eclimont and Guy Caput.
  • Plus fort qu'avant 2002 Robert Laffont, with Jean-Paul Vespini.
  • Richard Virenque Coeur de Grimpeur Mes Plus Belles Etapes 2006 Privat, with Patrick Louis

See also


External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
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