SALON

Friday, Jan 18, 2013 2:15 PM UTC

UCI: Armstrong confession repairs damage to sport

By

Topics: From the Wires,

WENGEN, Switzerland (AP) — Former world cycling leader Hein Verbruggen says he’s vindicated after years of “conspiracy theories” that he helped cover up doping by Lance Armstrong.

The International Cycling Union’s honorary president added on Friday it was “good that Lance Armstrong finally admitted to doping,” which was welcomed by the governing body as an important step in repairing damage the disgraced rider did to the sport.

Armstrong told talk-show host Oprah Winfrey that testimony from some former teammates about the UCI making his alleged positive test at the 2001 Tour of Switzerland “go away” was untrue.

“I agree with its conclusions in particular the fact that there was no cover-up,” Verbruggen, who led the UCI from 1991-2005, said in a statement provided to The Associated Press.

“I am pleased that after years of accusations being made against me the conspiracy theories have been shown to be nothing more than that,” the Dutch official said. “I have no doubt that the peddlers of such accusations and conspiracies will be disappointed by this outcome.”

Armstrong reportedly paid the UCI $125,000 which Floyd Landis and Tyler Hamilton testified to the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency was in exchange for covering up a positive test for the blood-booster EPO.

“That story isn’t true. There was no positive test. No paying off of the lab. The UCI did not make that go away. I’m no fan of the UCI,” Armstrong told Winfrey.

Verbruggen said that “given this is true, I was not surprised that Lance Armstrong confirmed this in the interview.”

Still, statements issued by Verbruggen and the UCI on Friday did not directly address Armstrong’s recollection that “they asked if I would make a donation,” apparently toward anti-doping equipment.

“They (the UCI) called and said they didn’t have a lot of money — I did,” Armstrong said.

Verbruggen’s successor as UCI president, Pat McQuaid, said that Armstrong’s admission of doping to Winfrey was a welcome move.

“Lance Armstrong’s decision finally to confront his past is an important step forward on the long road to repairing the damage that has been caused to cycling and to restoring confidence in the sport,” McQuaid in a statement.

McQuaid insisted that “there were no positive tests which were covered up and he has confirmed that the donations made to the UCI were to assist in the fight against doping.”

“Lance Armstrong has confirmed there was no collusion or conspiracy between the UCI and Lance Armstrong,” McQuaid said.

The UCI’s links to the Armstrong case will be examined by an independent commission over three weeks of hearings in London in April.

McQuaid, who replaced Verbruggen as UCI president in 2005, said the UCI would welcome Armstrong participating in a proposed “truth and reconciliation process” for cycling.

The Irish official and Verbruggen have said they will give evidence to the three-member inquiry panel.

Armstrong told Winfrey he took banned drugs during each of the seven Tour de France victories that were stripped from him for cheating.

The UCI acted on a devastating 1,000-page report published by the USADA in October, which raised allegations that the Swiss-based governing body was complicit in the widespread doping program by Armstrong and his teams.

McQuaid said it was “disturbing” to watch the Armstrong interview, which was broadcast worldwide on Winfrey’s website starting at 3 a.m. Swiss time on Friday.

“It was disturbing to watch him describe a litany of offenses including among others doping throughout his career, leading a team that doped, bullying, consistently lying to everyone and producing a backdated medical prescription to justify a test result,” said the UCI chief, referring to Armstrong’s positive test for a corticosteroid during his first Tour win in 1999.

“However, Lance Armstrong also rightly said that cycling is a completely different sport today than it was 10 years ago,” McQuaid said.

Verbruggen said Armstrong’s interview helped show that “the UCI has been at the forefront of the fight against doping in sport.”

More By Graham Dunbar.

Next Article

Related Stories

More Related Stories

Featured Slide Shows

The week in 10 pics

close X
  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11
  • Lisa Montgomery embraces her nephew Thursday after a tornado tore apart her home in Cleburne, Texas. The twister killed six people and destroyed entire swaths of the North Texas town.
    Credit: AP/LM Otero

  • Jack McMahon, the defense attorney for abortion doctor Kermit Gosnell, speaks outside the Criminal Justice Center in Philadelphia Tuesday. His client was convicted of killing three babies in his clinic, and will serve multiple life sentences.
    Credit: AP/Matt Rourke

  • A photo taken Monday captures Vice President Joe Biden's response to a Milwaukee second-grader's innovative proposal to end America's epidemic of gun violence. This guy!
    Credit: AP/Jenny Aicher

  • Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., flanked by a grouper-eyed Michele Bachmann, addresses the IRS' admission that it targeted Tea Party groups in advance of the 2012 election. In an op-ed for CNN Thursday, the Kentucky senator slammed the president for his faux outrage.
    Credit: AP/Molly Riley

  • Ousted IRS chief Steven Miller is sworn in on Capitol Hill Friday. Miller testified before the House Ways and Means Committee on the extra scrutiny the agency gave conservative groups applying for tax-exempt status.
    Credit: AP/J. Scott Applewhite

  • Attorney General Eric Holder pauses as he testifies on Capitol Hill before the House Judiciary Committee Wednesday. Holder is under fire, among other things, for the Justice Department's gathering of phone records at the Associated Press.
    Credit: AP/Carolyn Kaster

  • O.J. Simpson sits during an evidentiary hearing at Clark County District Court in Las Vegas, Nev., Thursday. Simpson, who is currently serving a nine-to-33-year sentence in state prison for armed robbery and kidnapping, is using a writ of habeas corpus to seek a new trial.
    Credit: AP/Las Vegas Review-Journal/Jeff Scheid

  • Major Tom to ground control: On Sunday astronaut Chris Hadfield recorded the first music video from space, a cover of David Bowie's "Space Oddity."
    Credit: AP/NASA/Chris Hadfield

  • When it rains it pours. President Barack Obama speaks during a news conference Thursday with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, inexplicably inspiring an #umbrellagate Twitter meme.
    Credit: AP/Jacquelyn Martin

  • A smoke plume rises high above a road block at the intersection of County A and Ross Road east of Solon Springs, Wis., Tuesday. No injuries were reported, but the the wildfire caused evacuations across northwestern Wisconsin.
    Credit: AP/The Duluth News-Tribune/Clint Austin

  • Recent Slide Shows

  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11

Related Videos

Comments

 0 Comments

Comment Preview

Your name will appear as username

You may use these HTML tags and attributes: <a href=""> <b> <em> <strong> <i> <blockquote>

follow salon

Most Read

Popular on Reddit

links from salon.com

From Around the Web

Presented by Scribol
listener_new_rect The Listener: So long, Sookie Stackhouse

Recommendations