Christophe Moreau

Christophe Moreau (Vervins, France, April 12, 1971) is a French cyclist who was a professional from 1995 to 2010.

Biography

Beginnings

He made his professional debut in 1995 with the Festina cycling team. He led him to victory in the Tour de l'Avenir in the prologue. He finished the 1997 Tour de France in 19th place overall.

Festina Case

He continued his progression the following year when he won the final and overall time trials at the International Criterium in 1998. However, he tested positive for doping in an anabolic steroid test. Festina team principal Bruno Roussel defended him by saying that he was another member of the support staff who had tricked the cyclist and forced him to take anabolic steroids.

As a result of this defense that was presented by his lawyer, he was able to continue in competition. However, during the 1998 Tour de France after Willy Voet on the Festina team was captured on the Franco-Belgian border, a doping scandal was uncovered which was dubbed the Festina Case. Moreau, along with two other members of the Festina team, Laurent Brochard and Armin Meier, admitted to taking erythropoietin after being stopped and were banned from the race. Confessing along with the other members of the team - with the exception of Richard Virenque - he had a six-month suspension, before returning to racing.

Post Suspension

He returned in 1999 to the Tour de France where he placed 3rd in the individual time trial behind Lance Armstrong and the Swiss Alex Zülle and finished the Tour in 25th place. In 2000, in the Tour de France he finished better, with a fourth place behind Lance Armstrong, Jan Ullrich and the Spanish Joseba Beloki. With it he proved to be a competent climber.

In 2001, still racing for Festina, he won the prestigious Dauphiné Libéré race. He took the lead in the fifth stage by just one second more than Russia's Pavel Tonkov. The next day, the two together finished second and third on the stage. He withstood Tonkov's many attacks in the final stage, to win the race. Several weeks later, he won the prologue of the 2001 Tour de France by donning the yellow jersey. There he met his wife after meeting on the Tour podium and they later married. He ended the Tour prematurely when he withdrew on the 12th stage. Festina decided to end his sponsorship of the cycling team, so he joined the ranks of Crédit Agricole.

Credit Agricole

Christophe Moreau.

In 2002, in his first race of the season, he fell and broke his clavicle. He finished third overall in the Dauphiné Libéré behind Americans Lance Armstrong and Floyd Landis. In the 2002 Tour de France he crashed downhill on stage 15 and had to retire.

In 2003, he won the Four Days of Dunkirk before going on to finish 8th in the Tour de France. In the 2004 preseason, he injured his knee which delayed his return to competition. His first win of the year came at the Trophée des Grimpeurs in May. Two weeks later he won the Tour du Languedoc Roussillon. In the 2004 Tour de France, he finished in 12th place. During the 2005 Tour de France, he came very close to taking the yellow jersey in the opening days in the Alps, but finished in 11th place. At that time, his team, Credit Agricole, publicly expressed their dissatisfaction with his results and he left the team to go to Ag2r Prévoyance.

In 2004 he participated in the Athens Olympic Games.

Bg2r

Hopeing to build on his new team and the Dauphiné Libéré, he came second in the general classification behind Levi Leipheimer and won the mountains classification. When Operación Puerto was revealed the day before the Tour began, Mancebo was banned from competing in it and Moreau became the team leader. His teammate Cyril Dessel then took the yellow jersey on stage 11 and worked for Dessel to try to preserve Dessel's jersey. On stage 19 he attacked the climb to move up the standings and finished the Tour de France in 8th place behind Dessel (Moreau moved up to 7th after Floyd Landis' disqualification).

In the latter part of his career, he was regarded as a clean cyclist, telling reporters in 2007 that it had a big impact on him as an athlete. "For my part, I have paid what I did," he said. 'All I know is that I came out of it stronger. She transformed my life."

Christophe Moreau and Nicolas Vogondy.

In the Dauphiné Libéré, he showed great form. In the second stage with 40 km to go, he attacked with several more cyclists. With 7 km to go, Moreau kept pace with the Spanish José Antonio Redondo. At the end of the stage, Redondo did not contest the sprint, Moreau won the stage and the leader's jersey. In the next stage in the individual time trial, he lost more than 3 minutes. But on the stage of the legendary Mont Ventoux, he attacked on the ascent and won the stage with more than a minute on the second and more than two minutes on his rivals for the general classification.

Two weeks later, he led the French Road Cycling Championship. Despite being a favorite for the individual time trial at the national championships, Moreau finished far behind, but his form showed at the cycling national championships, in which he attacked his two breakaway teammates with 40km remaining in the goal. He built a great initiative and won the championship with more than two minutes over the second and third. At 36 years of age, he won his first French championship title.

He started the 2007 Tour de France in good shape and was in the top ten of the general classification after the opening mountain stages in the Alps. However after an accident in the fifteenth stage, he fell back in the general classification and staying in groups, to stay in the race.

In September 2007, Moreau, citing financial reasons, announced he was leaving Ag2r Prévoyance and signed a one-year contract with Agritubel for the 2008 season. That year he left the Tour de France during the 7th stage.

Honours of Prizes

Results in Grand Tours and World Championships

During his racing career he achieved the following places in the Grand Tours and in the World Road Championships:

Race		1995	1996	1997	1998	1999	2000	2001	2002	2003	2004	2005	2006	2007	2008	2009	2010
	Giro de Italia	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
	Tour de France	-	75.o	19.	Ex.	27.	4.o	Ab.	Ab.	8.	12.	11.	7.	37. or	Ab.	29.o	22.
	Return to Spain	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
World on Route		-	-	Ab.	-	23.	62.o	-	Ab.	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
Global Contrary		-	15.	-	-	17.	17.	-	16.	-	-	44.	-	-	-	-	-

—: Does not participate.
Ab.: abandonment.
Ex.: expelled for doping issues.

Teams

• Festina-Lotus (1995-2001)
• Crédit Agricole (2002-2005)
• Ag2r Prévoyance (2006-2007)
• Agritubel (2008-2009)
• Caisse d'Epargne (2010)

Acknowledgments

• 2.o en la Bicicleta de Oro Francesa (2007)