“My career is over. I’ve been through everything”: French pro cyclist retires from racing, saying “it’s too costly” to defend himself and fight UCI to overturn doping suspension; Cavendish calls his retirement a “fairytale ending” + more on the live blog

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It’s been a tough year for Franck Bonnamour, the 29-year-old French rider who’s been involved in a long-running saga with the UCI over “unexplained abnormalities” in his biological passport, first being provisionally suspended by the UCI in February and then subsequently being dropped by his team Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale.

Bonnamour, who has continually denied any wrongdoings since then, has now announced that he cannot afford to continue scuffling with the UCI, claiming that it’s “too costly” and that he has accepted that he’s never going to race again.

Speaking to Ouest-France, he said: “It’s too costly in financial terms so I’m stopping. We had to start proceedings before the UCI tribunal before going to the Court of Arbitration for Sport.

“If we had been successful, the UCI would have appealed, which would have pushed back the deadline by a year-and-a-half, increasing the costs. I can’t afford to lose everything and that's holding me back financially.”

Bonnamour won the most combative award at the 2021 Tour de France while riding for B&B Hotels, following a series of attacking displays. His abnormal profile has been traced back to 2016, when he had just turned pro after becoming the junior European champion, after a test showed high haemoglobin levels.

> Franck Bonnamour sacked by Decathlon AG2R over biological passport anomalies – but French rider denies doping

He added that he’s been forced to sell off his apartment to fund his battle against the UCI and has spent thousands of Euros hiring experts and lawyers, including €4,000 to a biologist who carried out an analysis “which clearly explained there was a possibility of a defence.”

"He could explain my atypical variations and profile. Before signing his report, he contacted me and my lawyer, telling me that he wouldn't be going any further because some of his research was funded by WADA. He gave up on us.

"It's been difficult for the last six months and I didn't want it to go on like this for two or three years. My priority is keeping my family together.”

Franck Bonnamour, Critérium du Dauphiné 2023 (A.S.O./Billy Ceusters)

Bonnamour remains on the UCI's list of provisional suspensions, with the reason being 'Use of prohibited methods and/or prohibited substances' and faces a four-year ban from the sport.

His lawyer is negotiating the length of his final sanction and eventual fine, but Bonnamour accepts that he won't race again.

"My career is over. I've been through everything," he said. "There have been difficult moments, morale-wise, but I have the support of my family and I'm also receiving counselling.

"I'm afraid of the future, but I know what I have and haven't done."

At the time of his provisional suspension, Samuel Meraffi, doctor at the B&B Hotels squad he raced with in 2021 and 2022, said: “I have never noticed anything abnormal in his monitoring.”

According to Pascal Chanteur, president of the French Riders’ Union, Bonnamour’s case is based on a test taken during the penultimate stage of the 2022 Tour de France – when Bonnamour is claimed to have been suffering COVID-19 symptoms and dehydration – and an out-of-competition test from October 2018.

“What interest would he have had in doing that?” Chanteur asked Ouest-France in June. “It’s a total and flagrant injustice. I don't understand why no value is attached to the tests carried out in 2016, which showed an atypical profile. I don't understand why a year went by between this test at the end of the 2022 Tour de France and the UCI's notification.”

It’s really the end of an era for British cycling, as after Mark Cavendish calling it a quits this season, now Lizzie Deignan, one of the sport’s most decorated athletes, has said that she will be retiring from professional cycling at the end of the 2025 season after agreeing to a one-year contract extension with Lidl-Trek.

Deignan’s palmarès include 43 professional road victories, including the first Paris-Roubaix, Tour of Flanders, Liège-Bastogne-Liège, Strade Bianche and The Women's Tour. She won a rainbow jersey at the World Championships in 2015, a Commonwealth title in 2014, and holds multiple National Champion titles. Deignan also won a silver medal on home soil at the 2012 Olympics, a feat that cemented her place among Britain’s cycling greats.

Releasing a video with Lidl-Trek, she said: “Well I think winning the rainbow jersey was up there with the best of them… It takes a lot, and looking back I think to myself, ‘Wow, who was that girl!’”

“Roubaix was a totally unexpected win, and honestly the reaction afterwards was kind of bigger than I expected it to be. It was a changing point in women’s cycling and it was really special that I got to be the person to cross the line.

“I remember winning the World Tour in the pandemic year when Orla (daughter) was a year and a half old. To be consistently on paper the best rider in the world when I had a one and half year-old at home was a really impressive achievement.

“My kids… I just don’t want to see goodbye to them anymore,” she says, on the verge of tears, before jokingly adding: “Cut!”

Lizzie Deignan and family at 2019 Road Worlds in Harrogate (Simon Wilkinson/SWpix.com)

In 2018, Deignan paused her career to welcome her first child, Orla, a choice which at the time was a rarity in the women’s professional peloton. She returned to racing at her best, topping the UCI Women’s WorldTour rankings within just 18 months of her comeback.

Regaining her composure in front of the camera — not very dissimilar to what we’re used to whenever she’s in a spot on the bike — she says: “[I have] No ego and necessity to retire at the top. I’m really happy to go full circle and be somebody that helps other people in bike races. If I can help the next champion of the sport, then I'm delighted to do that.”

“The reason I initially wanted to retire was because I no longer have the motivation for my own results,” admitted Deignan. However, a discussion with Lidl-Trek sparked a new motivation. “They spoke to me and offered me a contract in the vein of being a road captain and somebody that can mentor the younger riders coming through. That kind of sparked a bit of motivation in me and I thought, yeah, actually that's something that I am really motivated by. I really enjoy bringing out the best in the people around me. I still love cycling.”

> “Will Children in Need be paying for his new knees?” Paddy McGuinness completes epic five-day, 300-mile Raleigh Chopper charity cycle, raising over £7.5m – with a little help from Sir Chris Hoy (and a Gladiator)

Move aside amateur Strava artists, we’ve got a professional in the room with us now…

Nicolas Georgiou, who’s made a name for himself drawing up a few grand things by riding his bike and charting his route on the activity sharing and tracking app Strava, has perhaps outdone himself this time. Accompanied by a dozen riders from Rapha Cycling Club and Chain Gang Cyclists, many wearing Pudsey ears, the fashion designer Hither Green in south-east London cycled 70 miles for 12 hours before his oeuvre d’art was realised, and it truly is a work of art.

“It’s hard riding so slowly but you need to in order to stick to the route,” He told BBC London about his Children in Need’s Pudsey project.

Georgiou spent a month carefully planning and plotting the ride through London, designing even the famous bandanna and the eye patch with polka dots, eventually setting out on the ride on 1 November. But even after all the meticulous preparations, life had to throw a few wrench across their way.

“We weren’t helped by a few punctures as well as park closures,” he said. “At one point the only way to keep to the line we needed to draw Pudsey was to carry our bikes and walk through a building in Belsize Park. When we told the builders who were working there that it was all for Children In Need they very kindly let us through.”

Georgiou’s catalogue so far includes a 77.3km ride for a “fabulous stiletto”, a 204km dragon spanning from Islington to Croydon to mark the Chinese Year of the Dragon, the supremely viral cyclist to celebrate Mark Cavendish’s 35th win at the Tour de France (shared by Strava and Tour de France), a classical Greek Olympic discuss thrower before the Paris Olympic Games, a fist for “Black Unity Bike Ride” and recently, the 142-mile two koi fish for Rapha 20th Anniversary.

He added that he started doing these cycling artworks on Strava during the pandemic lockdown to keep himself. “I needed something for my own mental health and I just take so much joy in creating these routes and seeing them come to life,” he said. “I have good sketching skills but when it comes to Strava my bike is my pencil.”

 

 

 

 

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A post shared by Nicolas Georgiou (@nico_georgiou)

Despite having so many picks to choose from, Georgiou said that Pudsey is his “favourite” so far. “It just felt like Pudsey would be such a cute thing to do and to put him on the map like this feels really special,” he added.

“This challenge is not just about cycling; it’s about creating a satellite tracked piece of art that symbolises hope and support for children in need.”

Georgiou’s not the only one to create Strava Art of Pudsey, he has the company of Leicester-based cyclist Rebecca Laurel, who came up with her own rendition, although not as elaborate. One could say being a fashion designer and a cyclist perhaps might give Georgiou the edge…

You can donate to Georgiou’s fundraiser for BBC Children in Need here.

EDIT: Yes, Children in Need, not Comic Relief... yes, joules1975 in the comments, you are right it is easy to mistake someone with a comedy red nose for a yellow bear with a multi coloured eye patch... maybe? 

For the first time in 30 years, cyclists will be permitted to ride on a town centre shopping street, after councillors approved a controversial 18-month cycling trial which they say will “enhance active travel” by making the street “more accessible” to cyclists and improving the choice of local routes for people on bikes.

Paul Troop, the secretary of Bike Users Oxford, said he believes the trial will bring benefits to the town, such as supporting mental wellbeing and physical fitness, and attracting more potential customers to the town centre, adding: “If we don’t hold a trial, we might miss the significant benefits would bring to Bicester.”

Read more: > “We need an outbreak of common sense”: Controversial cycling trial on pedestrian shopping street approved amid claims “every single resident does not want this scheme” – but disabled cyclists say trial “necessary step” to make town more accessible