[5] Florent Brard raced as an amateur as a member of the Cercle Paul-Bert in the Tours region of France.

[6] He tried professional racing as a stagiaire, or apprentice, with the Française des Jeux team in 1997, riding at the Élite 2 level.

[13] He said: "When I signed for them I wasn't at all happy because, when you come from big teams like Festina and Crédit d'Agricole, which have a prominent image, it's strange, I had the impression of going backward in my career.

In 2006, he moved to Caisse d'Epargne-Illes Balears, with whom he rode the Tour de France after winning the national road championship at Chantonnay a week before the start.

Florent Brard was prescribed corticoid to recover from a crash in the Grand Prix du Midi Libre.

"[18] and was caught in a dope test in the Tour de l'Ain, which he finished an hour behind the winner.

A champion can be a good guy as much as a bad one.He rode then for Belgian teams because, he said, Roger Legeay, his former boss at Crédit Agricole, was president of AC2000.

[20] "He knew that I was in touch with Agritubel; he said to a meeting of AC2000, 'If a French team takes on a former dope-taker, we'll throw it out of the association.

In 2006 they moved to Serres-Castet, near the Pyrenees, to profit from better weather for training than in the Loire valley around Tours and to improve his riding in the mountains.