(Update: May 18, 2007 — LeMond charges witness intimidation in Landis drug hearing)
Three-time Tour de France champion Greg LeMond told French newspaper L'Equipe on Sunday why he testified against Lance Armstrong in a recent arbitration hearing.
“I was forced to testify, because Lance had threatened me. … He threatened my wife, my business, my life. His biggest threat consisted of saying he would find 10 people to testify that I took EPO. Of course, he didn't find a single one.”
Armstrong calls it “ridiculous. Greg is obsessed with foiling my career. I'm apoplectic when I read stuff like that.”
LeMond testified in a hearing earlier this year in a lawsuit that Armstrong had filed against insurance company SCA. The insurer was stalling a promised $5 million bonus payment to Armstrong for winning the 2004 Tour de France after doping allegations surfaced. The firm has since been ordered to pay the money. (More about the lawsuit and testimony against Armstrong, which he called absurd.)
Reporting on the L'Equipe story, the AP explains that LeMond had been publically critical in 2001 of Armstrong's association with Italian doctor Michael Ferrari, who has since received a suspended sentence for sports fraud and malpractice. A charge that Ferrari distributed blood-doping products to cyclists was dropped.
LeMond later apologized to Armstrong.
Online excerpts of the book “LA Confidential: The Secrets of Lance Armstrong” (the book is not available in the US) recall a phone conversation between Armstrong and LeMond after the Ferrari episode.
According to the authors, LeMond's wife copied down her husband's portion of the dialogue, then the two went back and filled in what Armstrong had said. Therefore, it's not an exact transcript and there is no recorded copy. Here's part of what was said:
Lance Armstrong: “Oh come on, now, you're telling me you never done EPO?”
Greg LeMond: “Why would you say I did EPO?”
LA: “Come on, everyone's done EPO.”
GL: “Why do you think I did it?”
LA: “Well, your comeback in '89 was so spectacular. Mine's a miracle,
yours was a miracle. You couldn't have been as strong as you were in
'89 without EPO.”GL: “Listen Lance, before EPO was ever in cycling, I won the Tour de
France. First time I was in the Tour, I was third; second time I
should have won but was held back by my team, third time I won it. It
is not because of EPO that I have won the Tour, my haematocrit was
never more than 45, but because I had a V02 max of 95, yours was 82.
Tell me one person who said I did EPO.”LA: “Everyone knows it.”
GL: “Are you threatening me?”
LA: “If you want to throw stones, I will throw stones.”
GL: “So you are threatening me? Listen Lance, I know physiology; no
amount of training can transform an athlete with a VO2 max of 82 into
one with a VO2 Max of 95 and you have ridden faster than I did.”LA: “I can find at least ten people who will say you did EPO. Ten
people who would come forward.”GL: “That's impossible. I know I never did that. There is no one that
can come forward and say that. If I had taken EPO, I would have had a
haematocrit higher than 45. I never did. And if I have that accusation
levelled against me, I will know it came from you.”
Further, the CyclingNews reports that LeMond says the Unione Cycliste International (UCI) is responsible for the loose enforcement of anti-doping rules. “This problem goes beyond Armstrong,” he said. “The Spanish scandal is another example, the entire system is corrupt, the UCI is corrupt.”
1 comments
Greg Lemond is guilty of doping. His miracle comeback while he was anemic to name one. If they had the tests they do now back then, he would have been stripped of his wins or kicked out before the races were over.