Luc Leblanc donated a poignant interview Parisianthis Thursday, on the occasion of the release of his book Me, Lucho. The important thing is to stay alive, published by Solar. The 56-year-old former cyclist indicates in particular that he almost committed suicide in 2003, five years after the end of his career. “I was at my wit’s end, in the middle of a depression,” he explains. I had gained 20 kg and I was under tax control when I had been the victim of a bad financial adviser. »
“I took my gun and went up into the woods,” adds Leblanc, who was then living near Pau. At one point I sat down by a tree and held the gun barrel to my throat. “Finally, after weighing the consequences of his action, this father of two changed his mind: “I put down the gun and went back down to my village. »
“I had it”
Wearer of the yellow jersey in the Tour de France in 1991, French champion in 1992 then world champion in 1994, Luc Leblanc, a professional from 1987 to 1998, had a rich career during a period marked by doping. “My relatives told me it was time to talk about my suffering. I drooled over it, I received my share of unfair jokes, ”says Leblanc.
Now settled in the North, the former runner has squandered his earnings through the fault of bad choices and bad encounters and admits to living “from contracts on the right or on the left”. He also returns to his bad relations with Laurent Fignon and Richard Virenque, the two French stars of the peloton at the time, and his recourse to doping.
“Great psychological violence”
“I was at Festina at the time and went to see our doctor. I told him that I did not understand the transformation of certain teammates. He explained to me that if I wanted to follow, I had to do like them. Otherwise, I was finished. I agreed to take some before the Tour de France [1994, bouclé à la 4e place avec une victoire d’étape à Hautacam] to reduce fatigue in my body,” he admits.
“I didn’t want a dose that would have made me stronger. It was, however, a terrible case of conscience. A great psychological violence, ”continues Leblanc, scarred for life by a road accident in 1978, which cost the life of his 8-year-old brother, and left him with sequelae on one leg.