{"id":37097,"title":"Charly Mottet","description":"Charly Mottet had a reputation as a clean cyclist who, unlike many of his fellow professional riders, eschewed doping products.\n\nWe look back at his career, his incredible victory at Il Lombardia and ask whether he really was Mr Clean.","content":"

Published in<\/strong>: <\/span>COBBLES & CLASSICS<\/strong><\/a><\/p>

Charly Mottet had a reputation as a clean cyclist who eschewed doping products unlike many of his fellow professionals.<\/p>

We look back at his career and his incredible victory at Il Lombardia and ask whether he really was Mr Clean.<\/p>

\"FrenchCharly Mottet rides the cobbles of Paris-Roubaix. Image: Mick Searle<\/em><\/p>

Charly Mottet was a respected professional cyclist who achieved fifty-seven victories over his long career. Impressively, he scored wins in every one of his twelve years in the professional peloton.<\/p>

He was noted for his ability as a time-trialist, in week-long stage races but above all for his reputation as one of the few clean riders of his era.<\/p>

We look back at his career including his greatest triumph in the most beautiful of cycling's monuments the Giro di Lombardia and his reputation as Mr Clean.<\/p>

1988 Giro di Lombardia<\/h2>

The air hung heavy with low clouds as the cream of Italian cycling and their foreign competition set out from Como for the cycling classic known as the Race of the Falling Leaves<\/em>.<\/p>

Madonna del Ghissalo<\/h3>

Hopes of a home victory were high as the riders began their 260-kilometre journey from picturesque Como on the banks of its eponymous lake to the finish in Milano - Italy\u2019s economic powerhouse.<\/p>

The victor would need to conquer five classified climbs including the ascent to the legendary chapel of Madonna del Ghisallo, the patron saint of cyclists, which stands high above the shore of Lago di Lecco.<\/p>

Syst\u00e8me U<\/h3>

Mottet\u2019s Syst\u00e8me U team had a very mixed year in 1988. Their standard bearer Laurent Fignon had struggled since he'd humiliated Bernard Hinault to win his second Tour de France in 1984.<\/p>

Two tendon operations and even tapeworms had forced Fignon to abandon races and underperform. Hopes of a return to his full potential looked good when he triumphed ahead of Maurizio Fondriest at Milano-San Remo at the start of 1988.<\/p>

But once again, he'd pulled out of the Tour de France after losing nearly nineteen minutes on stage eleven. Teammate Mottet only lasted until stage 15 when he too failed to finish.<\/p>

Good form<\/h3>

After recovering from illness, Charly came into the Giro di Lombardia in good form after scoring his sixth win of the year at the Giro del Lazio followed by triumph in the 89-kilometre Grand Prix des Nations individual time trial.<\/p>

Lined up against him was two-time Lombardia winner Gianbattista Baronchelli and a host of riders who would become the dominant force of the 1990s such as Gianni Bugno, Toni Rominger and Claudio Chiappucci.<\/p>

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Maybe the galaxy of stars should have been more attentive when Mottet in the company of Belgian Luc Roosen drove clear of the field. Roosen had finished third at Milano-Torino only four days before. But perhaps the pack, so soon after Fondriest and Chiappucci had attempted an attack was too weary to respond.<\/p>

Puncture<\/h3>

Now it was the Franco-Belgian pairing\u2019s turn to shine. Individual and team rivalry allowed the powerful combination to open a lead of over three minutes. Roosen and Mottet\u2019s hopes of success appeared to be dashed however when Roosen punctured. Mottet with still over sixty kilometres left to ride, pushed on alone.<\/p>

Such was his velocity that behind the bunch shattered until only a handful were in meaningful pursuit. Surely the combined efforts of such talent as Bugno, Marino Lejaretta, Davide Cassani, Rominger and Baronchelli would end the Frenchman\u2019s flight. Luc Roosen was swept up and he combined forces with them.<\/p>

Ahead, the Syst\u00e8me U professional danced up the climbs and then adopted his trademark aerodynamic style on the descents and flat to maintain his lead.<\/p>

Incredibly, for a while, Mottet even extended his advantage before Bugno set out with Lejaretta to slowly reel him. It was Mottet at his very best in full-on-time trial mode. His back was set flat in his unique style to minimise wind resistance whilst his legs relentlessly pumped like pistons.<\/p>

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Into the streets of a dull Milano, his victory was assured. He was greeted with polite but unenthusiastic clapping by a disappointed tifosi. One final glance around and his arms were aloft to acknowledge his place in cycling history. Nearly seven hours after setting off from Como, Mottet had become a member of cycling\u2019s special club - a victor of a cycling monument.<\/p>

One minute and forty seconds later, Gianni Bugno was welcomed home with rapturous applause, five seconds ahead of Lejarreta who appeared to gift second place to Bugno. Or maybe he knew he was no match in a sprint against the future twice World Champion.<\/p>

\"ImageGianbattista Baronchelli follows Bianchi Piaggio teammate Tommy Prim. Image: Mick Searle.<\/em><\/p>

Luc Roosen led home the next group of five to take fourth place. Only thirty-five of the 177 starters survived to the finish line in Milano. Roosen must have wondered \u2018What if?\u2019. The Belgian would finish third in 1989 but never came close to a monument victory again.<\/p>

Career<\/h2>

By 1988, Mottet was reaching the peak of his career and some of his best wins were still ahead of him. He finished the Tour de France fourth in both 1987 and 1991 and was runner-up to Bugno at the 1990 Giro d\u2019Italia.<\/p>

A tainted era<\/h3>

If it\u2019s true that he maintained his clean status as a rider and didn\u2019t succumb to the benefits of EPO, these latter two performances were exceptional. It\u2019s hard to know exactly when the use of the EPO became widespread but what is certain is that it was in use in 1990 and the performance benefits were significant.<\/p>

Surveying the leaderboard of the 1990 Giro d\u2019Italia and the 1991 Tour de France, it\u2019s easy to pick out those whose doping would later be exposed or have heavy question marks against their names. It would be much easier to list off the riders who are considered to be guilt-free.<\/p>

Monuments<\/h3>

Charly Mottet\u2019s 1988 Giro di Lombardia was only the time he\u2019d stand on the top step at a cycling monument but he achieved other notable results. Perhaps unsurprisingly his best performances came at Lombardia due to its mountainous route. As well as his lone victory, he\u2019d finish third twice, fifth and ninth.<\/p>

Demonstrating his versatility, he finished seventh at Liege-Bastogne-Liege and the Ronde van Vlaanderen as well as fifteenth at Paris-Roubaix.<\/p>

Time trials and stage race victories<\/h3>

Although he did win the occasional one-day race, most of Mottet\u2019s victories came in stages and individual time trials. He won the Grand Prix des Nations time trial on three occasions in 1985, 1987 and 1988. as well as the Grand Prix Eddy Merckx in 1986.<\/p>

Mottet took stage victories in all three Grand Tours, Paris-Nice, the Four Days of Dunkirk, Tirreno-Adriatico, GP du Midi-Libre, Tour de Romandie and Criterium International. Even in his final season, he won a stage of Paris-Nice, finished the Tour de France in twenty-sixth place and was fifth in the Grand Prix des Nations.<\/p>

Mottet was a successful performer on the track and won both the Six Days of Grenoble and Paris.<\/p>

Mr Clean<\/h2>

But how clean was Charly Mottet? Did he deserve the title of Monsieur Propre? The name of Willy Voet, a former team helper, is forever linked with the worst excesses of the EPO doping era. It was Voet\u2019s arrest on his way to the 1998 Tour de France that revealed to the public the extent of the problem.<\/p>

Willy Voet<\/h3>

In his subsequent book Prikken en slikken<\/em> (Breaking the Chain) the Belgian exposed his involvement in doping. Where others such as the supposed darling of the French housewife Richard Virenque cried and pleaded innocence, Voet quickly revealed all and named names.<\/p>

Few that he mentioned came out of the affair with their honour intact. Mottet was an exception. Willy Voet joined the RMO cycling team in 1989 followed a year later by Mottet. In Voet\u2019s account, Mottet helped to clean up the team and didn\u2019t want to have any involvement in drug taking.<\/p>

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In Voet\u2019s opinion, Charly Mottet was a victim of the dopers. Lesser riders had won through nefarious means whilst Mottet often struggled in the final week of the Grand Tours. In his post-1987 autobiography, Stephen Roche described Mottet as a rider who was always coming into, or going out of form but would never win the Tour de France. Maybe that\u2019s because Mottet was riding without pharmaceutical assistance.<\/p>

Aftermath of the Voet affair<\/h3>

Willy Voet became a bus driver after a spell in a prison cell following his 1998 bust. He was shunned by most of professional cycling and allegedly told he was not welcome at the Tour de France.<\/p>

The blubbing Richard Virenque protested his innocence until a court case in 2000. He was subsequently banned for nine months, reduced to six before promptly returning to ride away from the field in the 2001 Paris-Tours. No doubt he\u2019d learnt his lesson and his ability to win from a race-long break was the result of hard work and clean living. No doubt.<\/p>

But was he Mr Clean?<\/h3>

In a book published in 1995, the year after Mottet retired, the author Eric Maitrot wrote that Charly Mottet had admitted to amphetamine use earlier in his career. It\u2019s unclear if this was during his years as an amateur or after he turned professional in 1983.<\/p>

\u201c\u00c7a m\u2019est arriv\u00e9 de faire l\u2019exp\u00e9rience d\u2019utiliser des amph\u00e9tamines et j\u2019avoue que \u00e7a a \u00e9t\u00e9 un \u00e9chec pour moi. \u00c7a n\u2019apporte rien \u00e0 l\u2019effort sportif.\u201d<\/p>

From Sport et t\u00e9l\u00e9. Les liaisons secr\u00e8tes by Eric Maitrot published in 1995.<\/em><\/p>

Mottet had tried amphetamines but had found them to be of no benefit to. If he had tried drugs at one point, it would seem that later he had rejected their use.<\/p>

So should we consider him Mr Clean? Each person must reach their conclusion but I\u2019m inclined to believe in the honesty of Mottet\u2019s victory in Il Lombardia over blubbing Virenque\u2019s athletic endeavours.<\/p>

Tragedy<\/h2>

Mottet\u2019s daughter Eva followed her father\u2019s footsteps into cycling. She appears to have had similar strengths as a cyclist. Sixth in the women\u2019s junior time trial at the 2012 World Championships held in Valkenburg demonstrated promise for the road race three days later.<\/p>

Crash and aftermath<\/h3>

But a crash forced her out of the race with facial injuries. Charly was officiating at the race and tended to his stricken daughter. The extent of her injuries was more severe than first thought and whilst she raced again the following year, she had to end her season after a handful of races.<\/p>

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She was never able to race again. In 2020, aged just 25 it was announced that she had died. No official cause of death was made public.<\/p>

25 September 2024, Tim Costello<\/em>
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