Lanced: The Shaming of Lance Armstrong by David Walsh, Paul Kimmage, John Follain, Alex Butler Read Free Book Online Page A

more harmful than five litres of orange juice". Was Armstrong surprised by Ferrari's approval of EPO? He says he doesn't remember his reaction. Surely he wondered what EPO was? "EPO wasn't an issue for us. Jim Ochowitz (Motorola team manager) ran a clean programme."
    Armstrong's recovery from cancer came at a time when the sickness in his sport was, at last, properly diagnosed. On his way to the 1998 Tour de France, Willy Voet, a soigneur with the Festina team, was stopped by French customs officials. His car contained 234 doses of EPO and a cargo of other banned substances. Armstrong says he was astonished: "It was unbelievable, the contents of the car."
    When he returned to competition in 1998, it was with US Postal. Armstrong says Postal's programme was clean. He insists he won the Tour de France in 1999 and 2000 without doping. Others may have doped; he can't speak for them. Other teams may have used drugs; the authorities must police them. Armstrong speaks for himself. He has won without drugs. He is, and always has been, clean.
    WE NOW move on to discuss specific incidents in more detail. Armstrong rode for the US amateur cycling team in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Chris Carmichael was then a US coach and he soon became Armstrong's coach. Twelve years later, Carmichael remains the rider's coach. "He is my main advisor, I talk to him all the time." Carmichael has been implicated in the case taken by Strock against USA Cycling. In his formal submission, Strock describes being taken by his coach, Rene Wenzel, to see another US coach during a race at Spokane in Washington in 1990. Strock tells how this second coach gave him an injection, but does not name him. In a formal answer to the Strock suit, Wenzel recalls the same Spokane encounter and says the other coach was Carmichael.
    Asked why he did not name the coach at Spokane, Strock says he is not in a position to answer that question, and not in a position to say why he can't. It is believed Carmichael has agreed an out-of-court settlement with Strock's attorney. Carmichael says he cannot recollect the incident in Spokane and declined to comment when asked if he had settled out of court.
    Armstrong knows of the case and understands the implications. Has your coach Chris Carmichael made any settlement with Greg Strock?
    "Ask Greg or Chris," says Armstrong.
    Didn't Chris explain whether he did or didn't?
    "No."
    Didn't you ask him?
    "As far as I am concerned, it was a case between Greg and his coach, Rene Wenzel."
    What if Carmichael had made a settlement, would that not be a shock?
    "Would I be shocked? I haven't even thought about it."
    It wouldn't look good, would it?
    "Does it look good that Greg Strock just takes the money? Let's flip it around. Is this about money or is this about principle?" We talk about the professional teams for whom Armstrong has ridden, Motorola and US Postal. He insists neither doped: "There are programmes in this sport and there are athletes that are clean."
    A former professional rider who was a contemporary of Armstrong's at Motorola from 1992 to 1996 tells a different story. Now retired from the sport, this former professional agreed to speak on the basis that his name would not be used. Should it become necessary, though, he will come forward and stand up for his account of the Motorola years.
    "The team results in 1994 were not impressive and '95 started off the same. We had access to the same training as other teams, the same equipment; we ate the same food, slept the same number of hours but, in races, we were not as competitive. The picture was becoming clear for the upcoming Tour de France: we were going to have to give in and join the EPO race.
    "Lance was a key spokesperson when EPO was the topic. From the riders' point of view, we felt the mounting pressure not only from within the team but also from what was being said and written about us as a team. No one starts out wanting to dope but you become a victim of the sport." As