According to the UCI, the ban applies from 5 February 2024 to 4 February 2028. The Breton-born rider last competed for the French team Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale with Austrian Felix Gall. However, the conviction related to anomalies in the biological start passport from 2022, a document that documents long-term developments in values in order to indirectly prove blood doping, for example. There is no indication in the UCI's statement as to what type of anomalies the test values are supposed to have been. According to the federation's press release, Bonnamour has one month to appeal the decision to the International Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS).
Conspicuous features from B&B Hotels-KTM times with Franck Bonnamour
His last employer, Decathlon, pointed out that the offences that led to the conviction dated back to a time when the rider was still under contract with another team. In 2022, Bonnamour was still racing in the jersey of the B&B Hotels-KTM team. In the same year, he celebrated his only professional victory in the La Polynormande race. The year before, he had been voted the most aggressive racer ("super combatif") at the Tour de France.
The professional cyclist rode his last race at the Tour Down Under in Australia in January 2024. Beginning of February 2024 his suspension was announced. Last November, the 30-year-old then made it public that he was ending his career and giving up the fight against a doping ban. According to French media reports, the Bonnamour doping case was also linked to the separation from long-time team manager Vincent Lavenu last year, because he allegedly did not inform the management quickly enough about the Bonnamour case.
Andreas Kublik
Editor
