“Bjarne Riis should be silenced” – French ex-pro slams "arrogant" Tour de France winner’s remorseless doping confession

Former professional rider and team manager Jerôme Pineau has launched a blistering attack on Bjarne Riis, after the 1996 Tour de France winner repeated his admission of doping and insisted he felt no remorse for doing so.

Speaking on Les Grandes Gueules du Sport on RMC, Pineau accused Riis of whitewashing his past and attempting to drag an entire generation of riders into the same category.

Riis, now 61, had reignited debate around cycling’s darkest era recently when he declared: “I was completely doped. I knew exactly what I was doing. I have no regrets, because it was part of that time and of a system that we all silently accepted.”

While Riis’ doping had already been acknowledged back in 2007, it was his lack of contrition that particularly angered Pineau, who did not hold back in his assessment of the Dane. “He says this as if everyone else was in the same boat as him — but how would he know? Gilles Delion [best young rider at the 1990 Tour] rode clean. Riis, along with his Telekom gang, destroyed the careers of riders who could have done things differently,” Pineau fumed. “It’s nothing short of a disgrace. He takes money to give conferences, saying these things in front of companies. It’s shameful. People like that should be silenced.”

Pineau, who later became a World Tour team manager with Direct Énergie and B&B Hotels, argued that cycling continues to give too much space to figures from the EPO era who either express no remorse, or deny their involvement despite overwhelming evidence.

“There are two types of people who need shutting up: those who say they have no regrets, and those who say ‘not me’ when everyone knows full well they cheated. They act as if they’re above it all, which is even worse. Yet they’re always given a platform, still hanging around the cycling microcosm. Both categories make me sick.”

Pineau also reflected on his own dealings with Riis, who managed CSC — later Saxo Bank — throughout the 2000s, a period in which Pineau rode for rival French teams. “He used to crush us with his arrogance and his power. It’s toxic. When the Tour de France started in Denmark in 2022, he was so unpopular that he wasn’t even invited. He’s a pariah in his own country — and rightly so.”

Riis, long nicknamed “Mr 60%” in reference to his suspiciously high haematocrit levels during his career, remains a polarising figure in Denmark and beyond. Pineau pointed to the drastic transformation in his performance once he joined Telekom in the mid-1990s. “When he first rode for the French Castorama team, he couldn’t get over a bridge. Then he goes to Telekom, and suddenly he wins the Tour de France, saying ‘that’s just the system’ — while cheating. These people are sick.”

For Pineau, Riis’ career remains inseparable from blood manipulation. “There were loads of riders with a 60% haematocrit level who could just as easily have been giving conferences. I’d have been good at it myself! Riis is nothing more than a product of chemistry. His one so-called achievement was winning the Tour — but with a 60% haematocrit, of course he won.”

This kind of public intervention is rare from Pineau, who has been outspoken in the past about cycling’s ongoing struggle with its reputation. But his furious remarks underscore how raw the scars of the EPO era remain - even nearly three decades on from Riis’ yellow jersey in Paris.