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    NANTERRE, France -- Former Cofidis cycling team physiotherapist Boguslaw Madejak was sentenced to 12 months in prison, nine of them suspended, for his implication in a doping case, a French court ruled on Friday. Seven other accused, some of them riders, were given suspended sentences of three to six months, the court added. Briton David Millar and Italian Massimiliano Lelli were discharged Prosecutor Jacques Hossaert asked the court to acquit Millar, saying his cooperation helped in the fight against doping. In testimony, Millar said intense pressure to perform led him to try the banned blood-boosting hormone EPO. Millar, a Scottish rider who now competes for the Saunier-Duval/Prodir team, was banned for two years and stripped of his 2003 world time-trial title after admitting to using EPO once in 2001 and twice in 2003 -- including at the Tour de France. The court also found Cofidis SA and Cofidis Competition guilty, but assigned no fines, saying the proceedings had "shown the pressure on the riders, who must absolutely obtain a result or risk seeing their contract not renewed and losing all hope in cycling." |
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Nine months of Madejak's sentence were suspended.
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