Robert SASSONE

Robert Sassone was a track and road rider who died very young. He turned professional in 2000 with Cofidis, and was later implicated in the 2004 inquiry into doping activities on the team. Sassone was World Champion in the Madison in 2001, partnered by Jérôme Neuville. Sassone won silver in the scratch race at the 2003 Worlds. On the roads, he had four wins, and also completed the 2002 Vuelta a España. Sassone served a two-year ban after a doping positive for betamethasone at the Six Days of Nouméa in his native New Caledonia. In 2007 he was suspended for six months for his role in the Cofidis doping affair, one of five Cofidis riders to be banned, along with the soigneur and trainer. At the age of 37 years Sassone committed suicide in January 2016 after falling ill with cancer. He was the third cyclist from Team Cofidis, after Frank Vandenbroucke and Philippe Gaumont, who suffered cancer and then committed suicide.