Bordeaux - Belgian ex-trainer Freddy Sergant was condemned to four years in prison on Monday after being found guilty of supplying performance-boosting drugs to amateur cyclists.
Former French cyclist Laurent Roux was also convicted of helping to supply the drugs, known as the Belgian pot, to cyclists and was sentenced to 30 months, 20 suspended, while his brother, Fabien was given two-years, including 15 months suspended, for his part.
They were the principal intermediaries in the trafficking of the drugs from the Netherlands, through Belgium, into France.
Both brothers have already spent eight months behind bars and will not have to return providing they do not re-offend in the ensuing five years.
Laurent Roux described his sentence as "very harsh" and said he would discuss an appeal with his lawyers.
"The (recent) Tour de France affair has proved that things have not changed since the Festina affair," he said.
Laurent was referring to the current blood-doping scandal that marred the build-up to this year's Tour with 13 riders, including favourites Jan Ullrich and Ivan Basso suspended by their teams after being implicated in a Spanish doping network.
That was the first major drugs scandal since Festina were thrown off the 1998 Tour after performance-enhancing drugs were found in a raid on their team doctor.
Twenty others were given a range of sentences from time in prison, mostly suspended, to fines at the end of the court trial in which washed-up cyclists spoke of how they became addicted to illegal drugs in desperate attempts to be competitive.
They were ordered to pay a total of €180 000 (about R1,6-million) in fines.
A former official with the AG2R Pro Tour team, Laurent Biondi, who denied the charges against him, was given a three-month suspended sentence, as was former world mountain bike champion Christophe Dupouey.
Another principal protagonist, Yvon Manchon, an intermediary from Marseille, was given two years prison with 15 months suspended.
During the case, the court heard how the cyclists, including the Roux brothers, who had become "prisoners of their addiction" according to judge Denis Chausserie-Lapree.
But Sergant, who was linked to the sale of 2 000 vials of the amphetamine mixture, was "the only one who wasn't crazy enough to take the products he sold," Chausserie-Lapree had said during the trial. - Sapa-AFP