May 27/00 1:16 am - Frischknecht Speaks, Bastion Update

Posted by Editor on 05/27/00
 

World Champion!

This statement by Thomas Frischknecht was forwarded to us (by Steve Boehmke of Rock Shox), regarding the recent ceremony he and Jerome Chiotti held in France, where Chiotti handed over his 1996 world champion jersey and medal.

Another chapter of my career was written on Wednesday May 24th , 2000. Jerome Chiotti of France, the 1996 mountain bike world champion invited me to come to his press conference in Paris. The press conference took place right before he had a hearing at the French Cycling Federation regarding his statements he made in an interview in April.

In the interview he made a confession saying that he won the world championship in 1996 because he was doped with EPO.

After a training ride in the morning I jumped on the plane to Paris. Some French guy with his old 250cc Honda picked me up at the airport in Paris to race myself through the City to the Hotel Quality (means not a whole lot in France). About 20 journalists and some TV cameras were already waiting since I was half an hour late.

Jerome wanted to give me his original rainbow jersey and the gold medal personally, on a free basis, before the federations are taking away his title. He said that he made the confession on his own will and that it means a lot to him that he can give me his title on a free basis too. He now wants to repair the damage he did to me as good as he can.

Jerome was a road racer for Festina when he entered the international mountain bike scene.

Back then, EPO was just a regular thing on the road. He used that method in 1996 to win his first and only big race of his career. He later realized that in mountain biking it's not the same as on the road and started to feel guilty. He actually told me already in 1997 on a training ride that for him I was the true world champion. I kind of knew what he wanted to tell me. He then changed to ride clean for the last couple of years. He never won a world cup or world championship again but was still very successful. He placed 3rd on the Olympic course last year in Sydney. With his confession he also wanted to say that he is clean now and stands up for a drug free sport.

What he did four years ago was very wrong! He probably took away the greatest day in my career. Even though I am world champion now, I missed the emotion of getting the medal at the awards ceremony and hearing the national anthem. I missed the year of being the world champion and I missed the feeling of taking the rainbow jersey out of the gearbag and putting on the race number before each race. I know what I'm talking about. I had this great experience twice, when I was Cyclo-Cross Junior and Amateur world champion. All this was taken away from me. Still, Jerome's confession and the way he passed over the title shows that Jerome Chiotti has a good character and style. And I truly believe this rider earns our respect.

I was at the press conference for only one hour. After Jerome gave me the jersey and the medal, I raced back to the airport with the motorcycle to catch my flight home. With my family and friends I celebrated the title at a nice restaurant on top of the mountain, where I explored my first mountain bike rides 13 years ago.

Sure, it would have been nice to win this title four years ago. But I much rather get it now and keep it proudly for the rest of my life, instead of winning it the way Jerome did. Finally to get this title after 10 years of trying means a lot to me. But even more important to me is the fact that honesty pays off. The story about the 1996 world champion title carries an important message.

Drugs don't work in the long term. They are only bad shortcut to success. It's not worth it!

I hope the young riders and the older ones who still don't understand will learn something about this.

The title is not official yet but soon should be awarded to me by the UCI.


Bastion Road Race Update

Three riders - Richard Minichiello, Paul Anderson & Basse Clement - have a 3 minute lead on the peloton in the men's 147 kilometre Mt Tolmie road race currently underway in Victoria, B.C.