Marc Bracke, team manager of the Doltcini-Van Eyck women’s cycling team until last year, took his own life. The Belgian was banned by the UCI for three years last year for disorderly conduct and sexual harassment. Bracke was 53 years old.

The call for help from two cyclists, American Sara Youmans and French Marion Sicot, in the summer of 2020 caused a lot of controversy. Youmans said in an interview with the French newspaper L’Équipe that during negotiations for a new contract she was asked to send photos in a bikini.

Sicot stated that from 2018 onwards it had to regularly send photos of itself in underwear. “I’m old school. A leg photo shows whether someone is physically in good shape,” defended team manager Bracke. “But in these times of #me too So that wasn’t the smartest move. I’m being charged for that now.”

The UCI thought differently and imposed a three-year ban on Bracke in 2021.

“EPO due to pressure”

At the time of the Bracke case, Sicot itself was serving a suspension for use by the EPO. According to the Frenchwoman, she resorted to the banned substance to please her foreman. “I wanted to show my sporting director, Marc Bracke, a performance that would make him see me on a par with the other girls and allow me to stay on the team,” she said. “I had fallen into depression because of the pressure I was feeling.”

For this she was reprimanded by compatriot Pauline Ferrand-Prévot. “Doping should never be seen as a solution. Even if there is an explanation, we are fully responsible for our decisions and our actions,” was the multiple world champion’s response.

“Richard Virenque has become a caricature of the doping rider with his apologies about doping without free will. This is what it looks like. You look on the internet yourself, you buy EPO, you get it and you find out for yourself how the injection works. It bothers me that the cause of these actions lies with someone else