L'étude de la personnalité chez des athlètes de haut niveau peut constituer un outil précieux afin de développer des techniques de préparation mentales spécifiques et repérer des prédispositions aux addictions et au dopage, et ainsi développer une politique de prévention. L'objectif est de définir les traits de personnalité des membres de l'équipe de France junior de vélo sur route à l'aide du TCI ( Temperament and Character Inventory ou test de Cloninger), et de valider l'intérêt de cet instrument comme test de terrain. Dix-huit cyclistes âgés de 17 à 18 ans ont été évalués à l'aide du TCI, dans une version informatisée. Les résultats ont été comparés à ceux d'un échantillon de référence issu de la population générale, de sujets masculins de la même tranche d'âge. On constate une différence significative concernant la dépendance à la récompense RD (p < 0,0001), et ses sous-dimensions attachement affectif RD3 (p < 0,0001) et besoin de soutien RD4 (p < 0,0025), tous plus élevés chez les cyclistes que dans l'échantillon témoin. Les autres dimensions de tempérament et de caractère sont en revanche équivalentes dans les deux groupes. L'application de la typologie tempéramentale proposée par Cloninger montre que le type le plus représenté dans cet échantillon est le type « passionné ». Le TCI est un questionnaire de personnalité aisément utilisable chez des sportifs de haut niveau, et le profil moyen obtenu chez ces cyclistes semble peu différent des normes de référence, en dehors de traits de dépendance affective plus marqués.

The high-standard sport practice requires an optimum functioning level of the individual in all its physiological systems as a whole. If the physical program training progressed much these last years, the techniques of mental preparations are still very heterogeneous and are not based on any validated procedures, based only on individual practices. Nevertheless, the majority of athletes and trainers stress the major importance of « mental » in the realization of performances. One of the obstacles in the mental training of the athletes is the difficulty in finding tools making it possible to evaluate and measure the psychic state of the individual and its mode of coping and adjustment, apart from any psychopathology. Few studies have been carried out on applicability of the personality questionnaires derived from the current dimensional models in these populations. Our study aimed to describe the personality of the members of the french junior team of road cycling, using the Temperament and Character Inventory (TCI) developped by Cloninger to explore the seven dimensions of his psychobiologic model of personality. In this model, four dimensions are temperament factors, and three are character factors. The three main dimensions of temperament are Novelty Seeking (NS), ie the tendency towards excitement in response to novel or rewarding stimuli, Harm Avoidance (HA) hypothesized to represent the tendency to respond intensely to signals of adverse stimuli, and Reward Dependence reflecting the tendency to respond intensely to signals of reward and to maintain behavior previously associated with reward. These personality traits are hypothetically related to underlying neurotransmetter systems (especially NS to dopaminergic function and HA to serotonergic function). The two main dimensions of character are Self-Directedness (SD) and Cooperativeness (C), measuring maturity traits respectively concerning individual and social adaptation. In this study, we used a computerized version of the TCI in a sample of 18 racing cyclists, ie all the members of the french junior national team. Their results were compared to those of 26 male, young, community subjects, derived from the french normative validation sample of the TCI. Mean comparisons were performed with the Mann-Whitney test, with Bonferroni correction for multiple comparisons. A significant difference between subjects and controls was obtained for Reward Dependance (p < 0.0001), attachment RD3 (p < 0.0001), and dependence RD4 (p < 0.0025). No significant difference appeared between both groups for the other temperament or character dimensions. Based on temperamental Cloninger typology, the type « passionate » appeared to be the most frequent in this sample (55.6 %). These results suggested that the TCI can be easily and usefully used in athletes, and that the personality profile of young competitive cyclists is not abnormal except a high level of reward dependence. Numerous applications can be derived from this use : the development of specific and personalized mental training, the screening and prevention of psychological vulnerability.