Bernard Sainz was jailed for falsely practising medicine, particularly in cycle racing, and received other sentences for doping-related charges, which he consistently denied.
31 Facts About Bernard Sainz
1.
2.
Bernard Sainz began cycle-racing in 1958 when he was 15, riding a race on rollers.
3.
Bernard Sainz joined the UC Creteil a club in the suburbs of Paris.
4.
Bernard Sainz stopped racing after crashing in a motor-paced race on the velodrome at Grenoble.
5.
Bernard Sainz was the only one who could cure it and I remember a doctor who was different, whose approach intrigued and interested me enormously.
6.
Bernard Sainz says he studied for three years at the homeopathic school of St Jacques in Paris and at the national homeopathy centre, from which he said he qualified with the praise of the examiners.
7.
Bernard Sainz has always insisted that he practised homeopathy in treating racing cyclists.
8.
Bernard Sainz accepts in his biography that his qualifications in homeopathy and acupuncture are not recognised in France.
9.
The suspicion was that Bernard Sainz had doped the horse to run faster, but nothing was found.
10.
Bernard Sainz had blood analyses and even, it seems, a muscular biopsy.
11.
Bernard Sainz said he was surprised, with his cycling background, to see how lightly horses were trained.
12.
Bernard Sainz was questioned in an inquiry into possible doping of horses.
13.
Horse-racing, Bernard Sainz said, was an area where he had made few friends and which didn't lack dangerous people.
14.
Bernard Sainz returned to cycling in 1972, joining the Mercier team when Louis Caput replaced Antonin Magne as manager.
15.
GAN, said Bernard Sainz, wanted Raymond Poulidor, who had said the previous year that he would not race any more.
16.
Bernard Sainz treated Cyrille Guimard when pain in his knees was threatening his lead in the Tour de France.
17.
Bernard Sainz kept Guimard in the Tour even though the rider had sometimes to be carried from his bicycle.
18.
Bernard Sainz was questioned about illegal practice of medicine and held for two months in 1999.
19.
Bernard Sainz told police he had been to see the Belgian cyclist, Frank Vandenbroucke.
20.
On release from jail in Belgium, Bernard Sainz was re-arrested in France for breaking conditions imposed on him in 1999 to keep him away from the sport.
21.
Vandenbroucke held a news conference in Ploegsteert, Belgium, to say he had always thought Bernard Sainz gave him homeopathic products but that he had doubts.
22.
Bernard Sainz said Sainz had given him drops and injections.
23.
Bernard Sainz said to me that they were completely legal homeopathic products.
24.
Bernard Sainz seemed to be a strange man but was clearly a cycling expert.
25.
Bernard Sainz impressed me greatly by showing me photographs of him administering his treatments to greats like Eddy Merckx, Lucien Van Impe, Bernard Hinault, Laurent Fignon, Cyril Guimard and many other great sportsmen like Alain Prost.
26.
Bernard Sainz explained to me that this care was based on natural methods and alternative medicines without endangering my health nor violating the ethics of our sport.
27.
Bernard Sainz paid Sainz 7,000 French francs for the homeopathic drops and 50,000 in fees in the first half of 1999.
28.
Bernard Sainz is the Canada Dry of the profession: he isn't a doctor but he has the taste.
29.
Bernard Sainz's standing in cycling has frequently awarded him the title "doctor".
30.
Bernard Sainz was accused of administering doping products to athletes and practising medicine without a licence.
31.
Bernard Sainz produced no evidence of medical training at his trial.