Cyril Fontayne, the 43-year-old French amateur cyclist who was caught using a hidden motor during a race last October, has been found guilty of attempted fraud and sentenced to 60 hours of community service by a court in Périgueux.

Fontayne was already found guilty of technological fraud and handed a five-year ban by the French Cycling Federation (FFC) in December, and AFP has reported that he pleaded also guilty before the correctional tribunal in Périgueux on Tuesday.

As well the 60 hours of community service, Fontayne must pay a symbolic €1 in damages to the FFC and a further €88 to the Créon-d'Armagnac cycling club, the organiser of a race in which he used his hidden motor.

The former rider Christophe Bassons, who now works for the French Anti-Doping Agency (AFLD), was involved in unmasking Fontayne when he drove after the rider and blocked his escape when the motor was discovered in his bike at a race in Saint-Michel-de-Double, near Bordeaux.

He claimed that he bought the motor because he was suffering from sciatica and recovering from a herniated disc that forced him to give up cycling for three months.

“I did it to feel less pain at the end of races,” he told the radio station France Bleu Périgord, claiming that he wasn’t using the motor to win.

“I knew that if someone saw me, noticed it, I risked being suspended, but well, I am at the end of my career, I’m 43, I didn’t want to race any more, I wanted to enjoy my life with my wife and young daughter.”