Originally Posted by 2Rodies
2001 was when Greg made his first, and since retracted, coments about Lance and Dr. Michele Ferrari.
Thanks for the link but I don't speak much French past Renault, Peugot and Merlot! There isn't an english version floating about is there?
"Lance Armstrong would do anything to keep his secret"
LE MONDE | 15.07.04 | 13h29
Triple Tour de France winner (1986, 1989, and 1990), Greg Lemond is the first American to win the Tour. He lives in Minneapolis. Since the release of L.A. Confidential in which he is quoted, Greg claims being pressured. His bike company, Lemond Bikes, is distributed by Trek one of the main sponsors of the US Postal team.
Q: Your spouse, Kathy, tells in L.A. Confidential that Lance Armstrong called you in July 2001 to accuse you of having used EPO during your carreer.
A: His phone call had been a chock because he was violent and very menacing. Lance said that I couldn't have won the Tour without EPO. This is absolutely false because EPO didn't exist at the time. A week earlier I had been interviewed by the Sunday Times in which I proclaimed my opinion regarding Michele Ferrari (the Italian physician preparing Lance since 1997). Lance thought I wanted to destroy him when I simply wanted to warn him about staying with a guy such as Ferrari. Because I was convinced that such a relation was a catastrophe. At this time in Italy, Ferrari was already being investigated for fraud since September 2001
Q: What do you accuse Michele Ferrari of?
A: I met him in 1994 in a bike shop in San Diego. I was getting information about a device allowing power input control and performances monitoring. He asked me what it was and what it was used for. He had no training or conditioning knowledge. His thing was the Science of the Hemoglobin. For me he is the one who transformed cycling.
Q: How this change happened?
A: In 1990 I won my 3rd Tour and our team, Z, the team classification. A year later none of us could follow the peloton rhytm. There had been a radical change. Some riders who had never won anything suddenly were beating everybody. In 1991 I was better prepared than before: I outraced Indurain in the Prologue by several seconds. But after two weeks of racing the speed was so high than neither me nor my teammates could follow. In our team everyone knew something was wrong with EPO and other substances.
Q: What is your opinion today about cycling and the Tour?
A: I am glad to be out of this sport because today one doesn't have many choices. I am disapointed to see how few questions people ask. With all the recent stories I am less excited by the Tour: I am sceptic. There has always been a problem with doping in our sport but, since ten years, the products are so effective they can physiologicaly change an athlete. One can transform a mule into a stallion!
Q: You do not believe in Lance's miraculous come back from cancer?
A: There's no miracle in cycling. There's always an explanation. First is the original talent. Hinault and Merckx won the Tour on their first attempt. I finished 3rd on my first in 1984, and second in 1985. My physiology has not changed. After my hunting accident in 1987, it took me two years to come back but I never reached the same level.
The only way to go faster in cycling is by raising one's oxygen capacity. When I was racing my VO2 Max was the best in the peloton (93ml). Today I wouldn't be in the top fifty! I studied physiology a lot and I can guarantee you that no training regimen can transform somebody with a weak VO2 into a champion. And training methods have not changed by much.
Q: And if Lance Armstrong become the first six Tours winner?
A: People will say I am jealous because I was the first American to win it, but even with six wins it cannot compare to the past. Because of all that happened in the last ten years, it doesn't have the same value as Hinault's five wins, for instance.
Lance says that I am the only former winner not to support him. I was a great supporter the first year he won. But with those stories it's difficult to be one any longer.
Q: Lance Armstrong responds to his doubters that he has never tested positive.
A: Everyone says that. But David Millar has never tested positive either. Yet he has acknowledged using EPO. Every year new doubts are added as Police discovers things in Italy and France, and as racers, such as Jesus Manzano, tell the truth; that they used drugs. The problem with Lance is that you cannot talk with him.
For him you are either a liar like Christophe Bassons or Jesus Manzano, or you are trying to destroy cycling. I simply say that I want to hear the truth when I am watching the Tour de France. Lance is ready to do anything to protect his secret. But I do not know how he will be able to convince everyone of his innocence.
et voilą...
"Lance Armstrong would do anything to keep his secret"
LE MONDE | 15.07.04 | 13h29