(Sutton) A little over 15 years after the end of their sporting rivalry, Lyne Bessette and Geneviève Jeanson have reconciled.
Posted at 8:00 a.m.
Their “reunion” happened through two articles in the July 8, 2018, issue of The Press. In the main text of the Sports notebook, under the pen of Jean-François Tremblay, Jeanson told how she had made peace with her past linked to doping and was trying to rebuild herself.
She was about to become the head trainer of a training studio that her lover was opening. As a conclusion to this text written in the “I”, she wanted to “open another door” to the people from whom she had cut herself off because of the control exercised by her trainer André Aubut.
Lyne Bessette is one of the people who tried in vain to get in touch with Jeanson during his career.
My emails never got through, someone had to block it all. I always tried to communicate with her, but she was like in another world.
Lyne Bessette
On July 8, 2018, another article dealt with the Canada Man/Woman, an extreme triathlon presented in Lac-Mégantic. A paragraph mentioned Bessette’s victory the previous year and his desire to defend his title.
That’s how Bessette came across Jeanson’s personal testimony. Spontaneously, she wrote him a message on Facebook.
“We weren’t friends, but I just said, ‘Congratulations on your gym, you look good, glad to know your life is going well.’ She answered me right away. She told me it would be fun to meet and have a drink. »
The meeting has never taken place, but the two cyclists have continued to write to each other sporadically.
PHOTO BERNARD BRAULT, PRESS ARCHIVES
Geneviève Jeanson and Lyne Bessette in action in 2002
Has Bessette forgiven her ex-rival, suspended for 10 years for doping at EPO?
When I communicated with her, it was like saying, “Look, that’s okay.” Yeah, I hated that for a long time. But I’m not 23 anymore, I’m 47. At some point, you change, you see it differently. You understand more how the other feels, what she has been through.
It is not necessarily a pardon. It’s more: “I understand your situation and before, I didn’t understand it.” That’s mostly it.
Lyne Bessette
Bessette is sorry for the mistreatment suffered by Jeanson, who accuses his former coach for brutalizing and even raping her.
“For a while when she stopped riding her bike, she was like weird. It was hard. She was cursed against the whole world. But there, she became a balanced woman. She worked a lot on herself. It can’t be easy, what she went through. He’s a crazy bastard, his coach. »
The 2012 Paralympic champion, in tandem with her visually impaired partner Robbi Weldon, had a totally opposite relationship with her coach Eric Van den Eynde. The two are still friends.
“Geneviève is now able to speak publicly about her experience. It helps her a lot and I hope it will help young women to realize that if they are in a negative situation, they can get out of it. »
Bessette recently learned that Jeanson intended to participate in his cyclosportive Les 100 à B7 in the fall. A perfect opportunity for a real reunion on two wheels.