The professional cyclist Alexandre Geniez, member of the French team Total Energies, was sentenced this Wednesday to four months in prison suspended by the judicial court of Rodez (Aveyron) for domestic violence.
The 33-year-old runner, present for the deliberation, will also have to pay one euro in damages to his ex-companion, as the latter had requested during the hearing in January.
The latter had accused Alexandre Geniez of psychological and physical violence for several months, between February 2020 and November 2021.
Facts denied by the cyclist, whose defense was however undermined by an audio recording suggesting threats during an altercation in the fall, while the couple was in the process of separation.
The facts were revealed by the athlete’s companion in mid-November. In front of the investigators of the police station of Rodez, the young woman spoke of “violence that occurred in the previous months”, both physically and psychologically. She had been prescribed a day of ITT – temporary incapacity for work.
Present at the January 19 hearing, Geniez formally denied the facts. “We didn’t get along, but there was no violence, that’s for sure,” he said. Six months of suspended imprisonment had initially been requested against the accused.
“We recognize the threats, we dispute the physical violence,” said the runner’s lawyer during the hearing, who had pleaded for release for his client, denouncing “a case against”. The alleged victim, mother of the couple’s two children, had presented two medical certificates stating bodily injuries.
Having turned professional in 2010, the Aveyronnais has successively worn the jersey of the Skil-Shimano, FDJ, AG2R-La Mondiale and Total Energies teams since last season. Winner in particular of three stages of the Tour of Spain in 2013, 2016 and 2018, Geniez won the prologue and the 4th stage of the Tour of Rwanda last month. He has announced that he wants to retire from sport at the end of this season.