Tour de France - Armstrong slams Tour boss

Eurosport - Sun, 05 Oct 04:06:00 2008

Seven-time Tour de France winner Lance Armstrong has hit back at insinuations he sullied cycling's premier event, saying he reigned over the race when the sport's popularity was at a peak.

CYCLING 2008 Lance Armstrong - 0

"The last time I checked, I won the Tour seven straight years and was never once found to be guilty of doping despite seven years of intense scrutiny," Armstrong said in a statement.

"We won clean and fair. Also, according to industry standards, TV ratings, worldwide media impressions, spectators along the route, and global sponsorships were at an all-time high. Where's the embarrassment in that?"

Armstrong was reacting to a comment from Jean-Etienne Amaury, the new president of the Tour de France's parent company Amaury Sports Organization, who told the French sports daily L'Equipe of Armstrong: "We cannot say that he has not embarrassed the Tour de France."

Cancer survivor Armstrong also accused critics of his cycling comeback of trying to attract attention for themselves.

"Furthermore, as I've stated clearly, my main objective in 2009 is to bring about global awareness of a disease that kills eight million people annually worldwide," said Armstrong, a vocal cancer-awareness activist.

"Nobody ever said that I need the Tour de France in order to try and achieve this.

"It comes down to an issue of distraction, while I love the event and France's people, I cannot accept this sort of grandstanding which distracts from the Livestrong message that is urgently needed."

Amaury told AFP on Friday that Armstrong is welcome but he would have to adhere to the sport's strict anti-doping rules.

"We've got no qualms about Armstrong coming back to the Tour," Amaury said.

"But we'll be playing close attention to make sure he respects all requests that are made in an anti-doping framework to the letter."

Days after Armstrong's seventh Tour victory in 2005 L'Equipe alleged that several of his samples, kept since 1999 and tested retroactively, tested positive for EPO (erythropoietin).

Armstrong swiped those claims aside, but experts in recent days have offered to re-test Armstrong's samples in a bid to "prove his good faith".

"The way these samples are preserved and the volume of them mean that you can do an analysis for the possible presence of EPO on at least five stages of the 1999 Tour de France," said a statement from France's national anti-doping agency AFLD.

Armstrong spurned that offer earlier this week, claiming the French laboratory Chatenay-Malabry near Paris "mishandled" his urine samples. Armstrong says the lab also botched his 1998 samples.

Reuters

Comment 1 - 16 of 16

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  1. Good Luck to Lance Armstrong you have been an inspiration to millions keep it going, yet again sour grapes from the french

    From treva.floyd@..., on Tue 7 Oct 4:55PM

  2. Ithink that arrogance could be his downfall

    From iancampbell11@..., on Tue 7 Oct 3:23PM

  3. Comment prev. he has won the Worlds at the age of 21 the youngest ever. To win the tour de france 7 times is the ultimate goal you are a house hold name ask someone in the street to tell you about a Giro winner or Tour of Spain winner and the answer will be MMMMMMM dont have a clue. He chose the races that he wanted to take part in a year in order to peak properly Roache had one good year with the Majors and that was him . Remember the guy came back from nearly dying off course he is going to pick and choose what he wants to do.

    From Robert, on Tue 7 Oct 12:05PM

  4. At the end of the day the only thing Lance Armstrong has won is the Tour de France. He has not won the Giro, the Worlds etc in the same year as many of the great legends have, such as Eddy Merckx, Stephen Roche, Greg Lemond etc... Great cyclists prove themselves again and again in may races not just the one.
    To me, he is a great Tour de France rider, but not a great cyclist that can be compared to the all time greats.

    As for drug testing after the fact, what's the point. It's like saying, 'okay, you've won this year but you can't celebrate the fact for at least 5 years until drug testing has moved on and we can test properly'. The cycling organisations should concentrate on NOW and improve the sport and make it more open, not keep diggin up the past just because they can.

    Mark

    From Mark, on Tue 7 Oct 11:39AM

  5. i don't *care* who is right about this stuff anymore. nobody can say either way, you if you're one of the lance worshipers here or a hater, i beg of you to not be religious about this and spare us all the fevered debate about years old samples and riders.

    i just don't want to have this debate again. he was doped or he wasn't. just go away lance and don't make me listen to these people argue about it still!

    From the FISH, on Mon 6 Oct 8:19PM

  6. Once again the French are trying to sully the good name of Lance Armstrong, they have been trying now for 3 years. Just because France has not had a winner in years, they will keep chipping and trying to denegrate the greatest exponent of 3 week tour racing the world has ever seen. Don't they realise that Lance Armstong generated great interest in the Tour de France, and cycling in general through his efforts and indeed the tour is now bereft of genuine superstars to boost the World Wide enjoyment of the great race that Lance made the Tour de France. (Although the next genuine superstar of cycling was evident in the Tour of Britain, winning three stages, the Norwegian Bosson-Hagen). Back to the main thrust of the article however, the French should be down on their knees and praying that the icon that is Lance Armstrong will grace their Tour next year, perhaps not winning the event, but his participation alone should make them want this, and forget their jealousy.

    From William R, on Mon 6 Oct 2:54PM

  7. Foolish move lance as you now have to be invited to the tour and they do not have to qualify why, so Lance has probably just stuffed contador`s chances of winning this years tour cuz i doubt lance could beat him the teams don`t seem to be as regimented n I doubt that lance could do it without control of the race this years tour was more open than any for a few years and better for it

    From Alan G, on Mon 6 Oct 10:39AM

  8. It should be noted by EuroSport that the samples the French keep talking about were used by breaking rules. So as soon as they answer to the breaking of their own rules there should not be any discussion about the retesting of old tainted compromised samples.

    From Alan G, on Mon 6 Oct 2:42AM

  9. I am so annoyed by the constant condemnation by non or failed cyclists citing figures about the dirty sport and cheats, one person even quoted a famous website and go on to say look at doping in cycling.
    Well I took the time to look at all sports, we do want to be fair.
    LOOK AT THE FOLLOWING FIGURES ....
    Doping convictions in.....
    ATHLETICS ....366
    Cycling.............114

    From maurice1958@..., on Sun 5 Oct 7:56PM

  10. ASO is living up to the new name it earned this year - Always Stupid Organization.

    From mercurycu, on Sun 5 Oct 6:46PM

  11. It's amazing that we are still talking about samples 10years old. Well that's ok if everyone is scrutinised by the authorities to the same degree, but that just doesn't seem to be the case.

    If there's evidence of drugs deal with it, if not move on. Anyway I'm sure Lance and team can channel their frustrations in to achieving more victories.

    From Alastair J, on Sun 5 Oct 6:41PM

  12. Apart from the drug issues the post-Armstrong Tours have been pretty dull affairs. Lance gave the race drama aplenty. I don't think CSC would have been dragging the field around for three weeks if Lance's team had been riding. I for one am now really looking forward to this year's race. Give them hell Lance! BB

    From r.braid@..., on Sun 5 Oct 4:47PM

  13. "We cannot say that he has not embarassed the Tour De France", says ASO's new boss. The only people that have embarassed the Tour are the French themseves, by failing miserably to win their own race. Italians mostly win the Giro. Spaniards mostly win the Vuelta. The cheese-eating surrender monkeys haven't won their Grand Tour in 20 odd years. I suspect ASO are somewhat bitter about this. GO LANCE!

    From TOBY, on Sun 5 Oct 4:36PM

  14. I didn't read any slams in this article. The press is trying to sell themselves through controversy, again. Lance had to, once again, re-focus the press's attention back towards his true reason for a comeback; Global Cancer Awareness!!!!! Cycling has come to an unfortunate path in it's history. Doping sells papers and magazines, not achievments. The media and all their menions are ruining cycling. For example, look at how much media attention Sastre and Van Davelde (sp?) got after the Tour compared to Ricco's positve result.

    From TOBY, on Sun 5 Oct 3:19PM

  15. Good on you lance if they mishandled samples in 1998 the same could have happended to
    the 1999 samples
    Best of luck on your comeback
    tommy

    From tommywhelehan, on Sun 5 Oct 2:33PM

  16. You tell 'em Lance!

    From FRANCIS, on Sun 5 Oct 2:09PM
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