Greg LeMond rejects calls for Lance Armstrong’s life ban to be reduced
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Version 0 of 1. Greg LeMond has rejected calls for Lance Armstrong’s life ban to be reduced, saying: “If there’s anybody who deserves a ban, it’s this guy.” LeMond told a news conference in Adelaide, where he is attending the Tour Down Under cycling race, that Armstrong’s doping activities “took a good 10 years out of my life”. He said the seven-times Tour de France winner was punished not just for doping but for the way he treated people who accused him before he finally admitted his guilt. “I believe everyone deserves a second chance but it’s like he was positive one time, admitted it and said he was sorry. It’s repeated cover-ups. There’s nothing like it in the history of cycling.” LeMond, the 1986, 1989 and 1990 Tour champion, fell out with Armstrong when he began raising doubts about whether his compatriot was racing clean. Armstrong eventually admitted to doping in an interview on the Oprah Winfrey Show in 2013. “We had a decent relationship, but since 2001 we’ve not had any relationship. I’m not one that holds a grudge but I’m also realistic with who I’m dealing with and he’s not really shown any remorse for what he’s done,” LeMond said. “That’s not about doping but about what he’s done to people’s lives, destroyed them. He took a good 10 years out of my life.” Armstrong was stripped of his seven Tour de France titles and banned for life by the UCI, the sport’s governing body, in 2012 after the US Anti-Doping Agency accused him in its “reasoned decision” of running “the most sophisticated, professionalised and successful doping programme that sport has ever seen” while at US Postal Service. “If anyone deserves a life ban … Ben Johnson got a life ban in 1988 and relative to that he wasn’t involved in the conspiracy to cover up stuff. I don’t think there’s ever been a cyclist who has ever been involved in that level of deception. It’s unfortunate,” LeMond said. Asked if Armstrong’s ban should be reduced, LeMond said: “What’s the point, so he can race amateur races? He can do his own races. If there’s anyone who deserved a ban it’s this guy. Otherwise what’s the point in rules?” LeMond also accused Armstrong of trying to force him out of the sport, saying: “Cycling was my life and it was a major attempt to make sure that I was excluded from it. Even from the Tour de France at one point. “That’s pretty hard when you have one guy really focused on eliminating you. It was very stressful but it’s really the way he treated me, and I and don’t like being threatened or bullied, so I was willing to risk everything.” |