Madiot was later released after being questioned about his relationship with Erwan Menthéour. The other people who were taken into custody on Thursday were released too. All of the cyclists were given hair, blood and urine tests. Jacky Durand, Maximilian Sciandri and Franck Morelle were among them as well as the PR-person for Polti Brigitte Bolle.
Upon his release after 9 hours, Menthéour said: "The investigators want to know more about Sainz and Lavelot. They think that they are the masterminds in the dealing of dope products, but that isn't my opinion. The investigators are very professional and have a big dossier after months of work and taping phones. They want to go to the bottom."
Vandenbroucke may write the season off
Cofidis has refused to lift the suspension it placed on Belgian rider Frank Vandenbroucke. This was announced after Vandenbroucke met with team leader Bondue and director Migraine. VDB, who won the Belgian classic Luik-Bastenaken-Luik and then was suspended in the following week has been is defending himself against drug using allegations. His lawyer was Bertrand Lavelot who then introduced him to the horse trainer Bernard Sainz. Sainz was giving Vandenbroucke a series of injections claiming they were legal. The Belgian said in a press release following his suspension by Cofidis that he perhaps was naive but he still hoped that all he had been using was homeopathic remedies. Tests done by the Paris police after they had taken him into custody revealed a hematocriet level of 52%.
After the meeting with his team, Vandenbroucke said: "Maybe I will use the coming months as preparation for the next season." But he also added that he hoped to be able to race in the autumn classics and the world championships.
Later in the day it was announced by Het Volk and L'Equipe that Frank Vandenbroucke will appear before Judge Colin on June 18. The complete results of the May 7 tests will be known then. L'Equipe claims that the tests have found traces of amphetamines in addition to the excessive red blood cell levels.
The following article was written by long-time sport's journalist Jeff Wells who has a particular interest in cycling. It appeared in the Daily Telegraph (Sydney) on Thursday, June 3 1999. It says it how it is.
He writes: Sometimes you wonder if this Olympics is being run by Mad Magazine. What me worry ? That seems to be the attitude of John Coates - and it showed again yesterday in the latest on the road cycling fiasco. The bottom line is that the original road circuit, taking in Centennial Park and Bronte Beach, has been restored with minor adjustments which would have taken about five minutes to figure out.
Moore Park is no longer landlocked and Fox Studios - portrayed as usual in the opposition media as the toy of the "great satan" Rupert Murdoch - can operate through its main entrance. "It sounds like an excellent solution," Fox chief executive Kim Williams said after learning of the decision yesterday. Fox was never the villain of the piece, never threatened to sue and never even dealt with high-level SOCOG officials.
The move of one of the few Games "freebies" to Bankstown, as Olympics minister Michael Knight and Coates have been forced to admit, was nothing more than a crass cost-cutting exercise behind a hailstorm of gibber.
SOCOG and its cycling boss Ray Godkin almost moved 17 hours of world TV coverage of magnificient Centennial Park, beautiful Federation houses and stunning Bronte Beach, with its rolling surf and dramatic cliffs. Godkin got credit for coming up with the original course, which was universally hailed. But the credit ends there.
I drove the course on Tuesday. Centennial Park with its splendid 19th century Victorian character, is one of Sydney's finest advertisements. It will be picnic baskets, excitment, and a fabulous view for thousands priced out of other Olympic Games events.
It is Sydney's traditional home of cycling and is also historically considered "the birthplace of the nation", where the Federal Constitution was proclaimed in 1901.
The course also runs around Queens Park, giving the television cameras even more greenery to feast on, and then descends to Bronte Beach in a steep drop. Past the panorama of the beach it then climbs back to the parkland - a hill which will find out the weaklings without decimating the field. It will allow for breakaways yet still offer hope for the hardy Tour de France standard sprinters.
I have followed many bike races and this is one of the best Olympic circuits I could imagine. Yet Godkin was almost allowed to send it to Bankstown. Maybe he doesn't like to travel. Godkin wears two hats and it is looking like a conflict of interest.
As president of Cycling Australia - which has lurched from disaster to disaster under his rule - he is beholden to his sport. But as the paid event manager for SOCOG he is stuck with any idiotic decision it may make about cycling.
Godkin was a consultant to the Commonwealth Games road cycling program in Kuala Lumpur which was a total non-event, a complete throwaway. It was staged in an outer urban nowhere, with absolutely no crowd or interest, and the media facilities were so poor that there was not even a TV set to follow the races. Now he has almost pulled off a similar blunder for Sydney 2000.
By yesterday, after prolonged drama which Coates airily dismissed, it was clear that the world body, the UCI, to which Godkin is also responsible, wasn't buying the Bankstown option. It is no longer arriving to sort out the mess. It was sorted out by a quick poring over a street map. There was never any need to move the course away.
It could have finished in the great natural amphitheatre of Centennial Park, with a two-minute shuttle bus ride for the media to the SCG and SFS, or down Alison Rd outside Randwick Racecourse, using all its parking and infastructure. There were plenty of options which put the lie to the Fox scenario and any other motive bar mindless cost cutting which would have subverted principal aims of the Games - to present the beauty of Sydney, and australia, to the world and to stage a creditable event.
SOCOG sports manager Bob Elphinston even demeaned one of our greatest cyclists Brett Dutton, who rode the Bankstown course and pronounced it too easy. It would certainly have discouraged great stayers like Tour de France winners Marco Pantani and Jan Ullrich.
Australia - with our track team in tatters - could well have been accused of stacking on cheap road medal chances for bunch sprint stars like Stuart O'Grady, Robbie McEwen or Jay Sweet.
Elphinston, who put his leg over a bike at Bankstown, declared on ABC radio that Dutton was only a track rider - as if he really wouldn't know.
Dutton was the powerhouse in the 1988 Seoul bronze medal track pursuit team. But then he fell out with Godkin's man, track coach Charlie walsh, which is like death in Australian cycling.
But he did go on to the road, Mr Elphinston, and gathered a little more expertise than you. he was a member of the winning teams in the 1989 Commonwealth bank Cycle classic.
He holds the the fastest time record in one of our great classics, the 190km Goulburn to Liverpool. He won road races in France, Spain, Holland, Germany and Belgium.
I'll go with Brett's opinion, thanks.