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World title at risk Report: Chiotti says drugs helped win biking crown
Posted: Sunday April 23, 2000 02:37 PM
PARIS (AP) -- Jerome Chiotti, a former mountain biking world champion, told a French magazine that he had used the banned performance-enhancing growth hormone EPO to help win his world title in 1996. In an interview with the monthly Velo Vert, which was published Saturday, the 28-year-old cyclist also said he and fellow French rider Miguel Martinez had struck deal last year to give victory in the national championships to Chiotti. Daniel Baal, president of the French Cycling Federation, said International Cycling Union rules would be applied to the case and that Chiotti would appear before the Federation's disciplinary commission next week. He said Chiotti risked "the suspension or dismissal, after the event, of his 1996 world champion title," won in Cairns, Australia. Chiotti, who told Velo Vert that he was now opposed to drug-taking, said his annual drug budget had risen as high as 40,000 francs (US$5,800). "It was never very difficult to find [EPO]," Chiotti said in the magazine. He said that if he had confessed after winning the world championships in 1996, he would never have signed another contract and would have been kicked off the GT team. "Now the page is turned and I can say it freely," he said. The cyclist is now signed with Giant Global Racing as part of their cross-country, mountain bike racing squad.
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