Before gravel, there was a time, fleetingly, when road racing in North America was on the ascendency. Buoyed by the success of a certain Texan at a certain race around France, resources previously allocated to more traditional sports began to find their way into cycling. The result was multiple stage races of the highest calibre, on U.S. soil. Reigning world champions and Tour de France heroes—like Thor Hushovd and Cadel Evans—arrived fit and ready to race at the Tours of Utah, Colorado and California.

And a fresh crop of up-and-coming young American racers was ready to rise to the occasion. The next generation: Taylor Phinney, Tejay van Garderen, Alex Howes. In these riders and their contemporaries, U.S. cycling had its protagonists and captured the attention of legions of new fans.

"I don’t think it's any accident that some of the best years, in terms of quality of races that we had in the States, were years when Garmin and BMC were big rivals, and you had multiple proper professional teams battling it out every week," says Alex Howes, looking back at that part of his career. "They weren’t just North American or American teams by name—they had the best U.S. racers as well. When you have a bit of depth there and a bit of a rivalry, it gives something for the fans to get behind."

Now retired from racing, Howes serves as a sports director for the brand-new U.S.-registered UCI ProTeam, Modern Adventure Pro Cycling. The team exists for the express purpose of highlighting and developing American riders, with the hope of eventually becoming a top-division team and competing in the biggest races in the world.

Howes and those of his generation raced through the peak years, as well as the lull that followed after the revelations about systematic doping in the previous generation came to light. Subsequently, a slow decline in sponsorship funds and other resources led to the demise of the big three U.S. stage races, as well as other U.S. cycling events.

Without races, there is no venue for racers to show themselves. U.S.-based talent hasn’t disappeared, but high achievers have largely been finding opportunity in mountain bike racing and gravel, disciplines with more opportunity and less baggage. Modern Adventure Pro Cycling hopes to change that.

"The pipeline’s not really there right now. That’s really the main goal of the team, to bring guys from the States and get them over to Europe and really get them a shot," says Howes.

Howes was instrumental in the recruitment efforts of the team, which was created by George Hincapie and his brother Rich, as well as businessmen Luis Vargas and Dustin Harder.

In tandem with fellow sports directors, Ty Magner and Joey Rosskopf, two other former pros, Howes says they constructed a team that was focused on "really trying to find a group of guys that would be able to mesh well with each other and ride well together and buy into the whole idea of riding as a team and trying to get results as a group."

To achieve success, they wanted cooperation from everyone on the team. He says, "The reality is that cycling, for the last five to ten years, if you can’t ride as a team, if you can’t ride as a unit, it just doesn't work. The higher-level teams are too organised and too strong."

So far, the whole experience has been a bit of a trial by fire, and Howes and his fellow directors are learning new things every day. “Definitely, as a director crew, there’s so much we didn’t know coming into it. And there’s still a five-thousand-page book’s worth of things we still don’t know. Hopefully, we find out, but maybe we don’t. [I’m] wearing a different set of pants, literally and figuratively. So it’s been a big learning process.”

The Modern Adventure team is off to a strong start this debut season, but they’ve also received some pushback. Team co-founder George Hincapie and performance director Bobby Julich were part of the era that was fueled by performance-enhancing drugs. According to Howes, "those guys, George and Bobby, they’re probably the first to say that there are skeletons in the closet."

Howes has had a lot of time to grapple with the fallout from the doping era.

"It's funny," he says, "Because some of the stuff that happened in that generation—the blowback was tough, it was really hard on the sport of cycling, especially in the States. But through all that chaos and bullsh*t, it really created a huge window of opportunity for me, and my generation.

"Slipstream Sports, billed as the "clean team", needed a young American rider named Alex Howes that they could send to get blood tested 48 times a season and call me up every week to make sure I understood the mission: go fast and [do it] clean."

And because of that, Howes got to race on the world's biggest stage.

"Had that pathway not been there for me, I’m not some superstar rider who would have found a way. I needed that window and through all of the chaos and Lance blowback, that window opened wide open for me. So I feel pretty fortunate in kind of a funny way."

As an instrumental part of this new project, Howes feels the criticism levelled at the team, but he also understands it.

"The pushback hurts sometimes," Howes admits. "People shouting about stuff. Yelling in the comments about George and how we’re all a bunch of dopers and idiots. I sit there thinking, 'man, I got tested so many times and did everything right.' All I want to do is give an opportunity to some of these young guys. Guess you gotta ignore the haters and keep pressing forward. Some of that is justified, too, though. It’s okay."

It’s been noted by some that the former dopers on European pro teams haven’t necessarily received the same level of scrutiny; but then there are different cultural norms. Furthermore, removing anyone tied to the scandal is unrealistic. For Howes, he’s happy to look forward.

"It's not really a secret that we would love, if he’s up for it, to sign George’s son, Enzo, when he’s no longer a junior," Howes shares. "If you can’t turn the page when it’s literally a new generation, when do you turn the page? Because at some point we need to turn that page."

Modern Adventure Pro Cycling, with Howes and his fellow directors behind the wheel, clinched its first major GC victory in Europe last week with sprinter Ben Oliver claiming the overall title at the Tour de Wallonie. While a lot of the focus in on European exposure, the team will do a block of racing in North America later this summer, including at the much-anticipated return of the Philadelphia Cycling Classic.

Here's a game. Turn to the person nearest to you and ask them to name a pro cyclist, past or present. If they're British, I predict that they'll be able to stumble towards Bradley Wiggins and Chris Hoy, although if they're Welsh they've probably got Geraint Thomas somewhere in their locker. Victoria Pendleton is a possibility, if they were really into London 2012.

If they're Australian, Cadel Evans will be up there. If they're American, perhaps Greg LeMond has made an impact on their consciousness, especially if they're over 40. This game becomes a bit less predictable if the person is from mainland Europe, because the sport has made a bit more of an impression on the continent, but let's assume that they're not, for the game.

There is one more cyclist, of course, that everyone will be aware of. Even before I had any knowledge of bike racing, I knew this man, thanks to the yellow wristbands which felt ubiquitous when I was at primary school. That man, of course, is Lance Armstrong.

Over 15 years on from his retirement, over two decades since his last Tour de France 'win', Armstrong still dominates the popular consciousness of cycling. That's partly because he was an American success story, bigger than the sport, a rider who could appear on US network talk shows, dominate the front and back pages, hang out with presidents, date a celebrity.

It's also because of his fall, the frontman of the most-tainted era of cycling, the rider who doped his way to a record number of Tours de France, whose comeback from cancer paved the way for a career built on cheating. It would not be too strong to suggest that road racing suffered a terminal setback in the USA, potentially across the world, because of Armstrong's rise and fall.

Lance is still a big deal. In the past days, news of a biopic about the Texan has emerged, suggesting that Austin Butler – nominated for a best actor Oscar for Elvis – will play the American, and it will be directed by Edward Berger, known for All Quiet on the Western Front and Conclave. Apparently, it caused a bidding war across Hollywood, and the film has the rights to Armstrong's story, and that he will be involved too.

This is not the first film about Armstrong. There was 2013's The Armstrong Lie, 2014's Stop at Nothing, 2015's The Program, and 2020's Lance. Three of these might have been documentaries, while the new project is a drama, but his story is pretty well told. Do we need another? The news will certainly have created groans from all those cycling fans who lived through the dark times and the aftermath, who know the story inside and out.

This is naive, of course, it almost doesn't matter if the story has been told before; it is a good tale, the Icarus-like saga of Armstrong's near-death, recovery, inexorable rise, the doping, the apology, the crying on Oprah, and much more. Hollywood doesn't need a good reason to plough the same furrow, see the endless rehashing of the same superhero films, or the upcoming four-part series about The Beatles.

Perhaps the right question, then, is will this be good for cycling? The sport that has struggled to escape the long shadow that Armstrong cast over it, has struggled to move on from the suspicion that everyone might be doping. A new film about the controversial rider does little to alleviate that.

However, all publicity is good publicity. There is a chance that, should this film be good and successful, people might wish to watch the Tour de France to discover the real thing. Our sport remains inaccessible to many, a confusing myriad, so if they get the portrayal of it right, if the film is a hit, then it's not implausible that it could bring new people in. I hoped Tour de France: Unchained would do something similar, but that was culled before its time.

That's if they get it right, of course; I'm half expecting cobbles at Liège-Bastogne-Liège, an odd portrayal of what the Tour actually is, possibly even not much cycling at all, just an engrossing portrayal of the enigmatic Lance. A film could capture the beauty of the sport, though, and show it to a whole new audience. This would be positive.

I'll probably watch the film, and with the names attached to the project so far, it might even be pretty good. However, what I really want is a world where people know who Tadej Pogačar and Pauline Ferrand-Prévot are, and cycling could truly move on from Lance Armstrong. I'm not sure I have the answers to that, though.

This piece is part of The Leadout, the offering of newsletters from Cycling Weekly and Cyclingnews. To get this in your inbox, subscribe here.

If you want to get in touch with Adam, email adam.becket@futurenet.com.

Film industry magazine Variety reports that a Lance Armstrong biopic is in the works, with Austin Butler starring as the controversial American cyclist.

According to the report, the movie will examine Armstrong’s complex life and career, following his path from cancer survivor and global inspiration to becoming the subject of cycling’s most infamous doping scandal.

Butler is perhaps best known for his portrayal of Elvis in the 2022 biopic, which earned him a Golden Globe and BAFTA award, as well as an Oscar nomination. The new film is directed by Edward Berger, known for "All Quiet on the Western Front" and "Conclave," and produced by former Netflix film chief Scott Stuber.

While key production details have not yet been disclosed, Variety reports that the project is moving forward with significant industry interest, noting it has "set off a bidding war among major studios and streamers."

Armstrong is widely regarded as the most controversial figure in modern cycling history. The American rider dominated the sport for a decade, winning seven consecutive editions of the Tour de France between 1999 and 2005. He notably achieved this run after returning from a life-threatening cancer, which elevated him into global superstardom.

However, following a wide-ranging investigation by the United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA), Armstrong was stripped of his titles and handed a lifetime ban. Authorities described the operation as one of the most sophisticated doping programs in sporting history. After years of denial, Armstrong admitted to using performance-enhancing drugs in a televised January 2013 interview with Oprah Winfrey. Since then, the Armstrong name has become synonymous with doping.

Despite his public demise, Armstrong has never strayed far from the sport. The Texan remains a visible presence with his popular The Move podcast, and he's also understood to be involved in an advisory and mentorship capacity with the new Modern Adventure team.

The Armstrong saga has been the subject of multiple books and documentaries (as well as the 2015 biopic The Program) already, but this is the first time his story has been given a large-scale Hollywood studio treatment. According to Variety, Stuber has secured Armstrong’s life rights, granting the production full access to tell his story on screen using both public records as well as personal accounts and behind-the-scenes details.

As Variety first reported, the Butler-led project remains in development, with further announcements expected at the project moves forward.

Part love letter, part true story, a new documentary tracing the rise, cultural impact and collapse of iconic American bicycle brand Schwinn is set to hit the festival circuit in early 2026, with narration by former Tour de France champion Lance Armstrong.

The film, titled "No Hands: The Wild Ride of the Schwinn Bicycle Company," is the debut feature from Los Angeles–based Unfeatured Films and comes from the team behind "The LEGO Brickumentary" (narrated by Jason Bateman) and "Loopers: The Caddie’s Long Walk" (narrated by Bill Murray).

The documentary retraces the bike company’s origins as Arnold, Schwinn & Co., founded in Chicago in 1895. Over the next century, Schwinn became a powerhouse in American manufacturing and a staple of childhood, producing models such as the Paramount racing bike and the Sting-Ray, which helped define youth culture in the 1960s. Schwinn also became an early force in BMX and later in the emerging mountain biking movement.

No Hands also explores how the family-owned business lost control of the company after decades of prominence, culminating in Schwinn’s 1992 bankruptcy. For the first time on film, Richard Schwinn, the great-grandson of co-founder Ignaz Schwinn, appears on camera to discuss the family’s role in the company’s ascent and eventual downfall.

"Part love letter to a brand we grew up with, part riveting true story of an iconic American brand filled with mystery, No Hands is a passion project for this team," said producer David Brookwell. "There aren’t many names that elicit this much passion and nostalgia."

The documentary features interviews with prominent American cycling figures, including Trek Bicycle President John Burke and mountain biking pioneers Gary Fisher, Joe Breeze and Charlie Kelly, who recount the brand’s influence on the sport’s evolution and its global spread.

"At its peak, Schwinn stood alongside Coca-Cola and McDonald’s — not just as a brand, but as a fixture of American life that gave generations their first sense of freedom," said director Daniel Clarke.

The studio asserts that millions of people got their start in cycling on a Schwinn, so much so that the brand is synonymous with childhood.

One of those people is Armstrong, the film’s narrator and the former cycling star who was stripped of his seven Tour de France titles due to the use of performance-enhancing drugs.

"My first bike was a Schwinn Mag Scrambler, which was the beginning of everything for me," he said. "I have always been curious with Schwinn and its history, and this documentary captures the essence of the iconic brand in a truly compelling way."

The new studio says its goal is to highlight culturally resonant stories using a mix of traditional documentary storytelling and AI-driven technology. The production team is using AI-enhanced restoration to bring more than a century of archival photographs and materials to life.

The documentary is produced by Brookwell of Brookwell McNamara Entertainment, written and edited by Emmy winner Carl Cramer, and executive produced by KSQD Media founders Khristian A. and George K. Howell. It is presented by Tiburon Productions and Gem Pictures, in association with Brookwell McNamara Entertainment and KSQD Media, and produced by Human Design.

"No Hands: The Wild Ride of the Schwinn Bicycle Company" will premiere in early 2026.

Johan Bruyneel has hit back after the UCI spoke out against his presence in the Tour de France paddock last week.

Lance Armstrong’s former sports director was a guest on a Belgian TV programme, Vive le Vélo, and was seen at the race in restricted areas wearing accreditation.

In response to Bruyneel’s presence at the race, the world governing body released a statement on Tuesday evening reiterating that the Belgian was "not authorised" to be given accreditation having been banned for life from any activity related to the sport in 2018.

"In accordance with Article 10.14 of the World Anti-Doping Code and the UCI Anti-Doping Rules, Mr Bruyneel is banned for life from taking part in any activity related to cycling," the UCI statement read.

"While he is free to attend a cycling event registered on the UCI International Calendar - such as the Tour de France - as a regular spectator, he is strictly prohibited from participating in the event in any role or capacity, or from accessing areas that are closed to the public. This includes, in particular, areas of the Tour de France that require accreditation."

The UCI contacted the Tour de France organiser's ASO, for urgent clarification on why Bruyneel received a pass.

In response to the statement, Bruyneel hit back on X and personally attacked the UCI president, David Lappartient. "It seems that the president of the UCI, David 'The Selfie King' Lappartient didn’t like the fact that I visited the Tour de France last week," Bruyneel wrote. "I’ve said already many times, also to him personally, that I find his attitude being one of hypocrisy. After receiving this press statement, I have contacted him personally again, but he hasn’t responded (yet).

"I hereby want to reiterate how pleasant it felt to have been present at the Tour and really appreciated the many warm welcome gestures from the many people I have met at this occasion."

"I’m waiting for your reply to my messages on my WhatsApp," he added, before going on to tag Lappartient’s personal X account in his message.

ASO are yet to issue their own statement on the matter, although the host of the talk show, Karl Vannieuwkerke, said on Wednesday that Bruyneel was accredited by ASO after Vive le Vélo had applied through "normal procedures."

"We applied for accreditation just as we do for every guest," Vannieuwkerke said. "And there was never any objection."

Bruyneel was initially banned from the sport for ten years after being involved in the doping ring operated by the US Postal Service and Discovery Channel teams. An investigation into both of the teams resulted in Lance Armstrong being stripped of his seven Tour de France titles. Bruyneel appealed the initial ban, issued by the American Arbitration Association, but the Court of Arbitration for Sport then ruled that he should be banned for life from the sport after considering the appeal.

Johan Bruyneel, Lance Armstrong's former manager, is not authorised to be at the Tour de France's accredited areas, the UCI has stressed.

Cycling's governing body released a statement on Tuesday evening which reiterated that Bruyneel was banned for life from any activity related to cycling, after the 60-year-old was present at the Tour last week.

The Belgian was a guest on VRT programme Vive le Velo on stage 12, but the UCI said that he should never have been allowed access.

In a press release, a spokesperson for the UCI said: "The Union Cycliste Internationale noted the presence of Mr Johan Bruyneel in the Tour de France start village on 17 July 2025 in connection with his participation in Vive le vélo, a programme broadcast by the Flemish-language Belgian public television channel VRT1.

"On 25 October 2018, Mr Bruyneel was sanctioned by the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) with a life ban for anti-doping rules violations when he worked with the US Postal Service Pro Cycling Team and the Discovery Channel Pro Cycling Team.

"In accordance with Article 10.14 of the World Anti-Doping Code and the UCI Anti-Doping Rules, Mr Bruyneel is banned for life from taking part in any activity related to cycling. While he is free to attend a cycling event registered on the UCI International Calendar - such as the Tour de France - as a regular spectator, he is strictly prohibited from participating in the event in any role or capacity, or from accessing areas that are closed to the public. This includes, in particular, areas of the Tour de France that require accreditation.

"As a person serving a lifetime ban, Mr Bruyneel was therefore not authorised to be present in the Tour de France start village or team area.

"The UCI would like to add that the accreditation process for the Tour de France is not its responsibility, but rather is that of Amaury Sport Organisation (ASO), the race organiser. The UCI confirms that it has contacted ASO to clarify whether Mr Bruyneel was granted an official accreditation, to understand how this could have happened, and to ensure that no further accreditation will be issued to him.

"The UCI stresses that it is closely following this matter and will take all appropriate measures."

Last week, the programme's editor-in-chief, Leendert Derck, told Sporza: "We have carefully considered whether we can invite him," says

"According to VRT rules, we are allowed to invite someone who has been suspended, but this must be mentioned."

"We've also made that clear to Bruyneel himself. He knows that questions about his past will arise, and he's prepared to answer them."

Bruyneel was banned from sport for 10 years after he helped and encouraged riders to dope at the US Postal Service and Discovery Channel teams.

Bruyneel had appealed the ban, which was imposed by the American Arbitration Association (AAA) in 2012, but while considering the appeal CAS ruled that Bruyneel should be banned for the rest of his life.

Lance Armstrong's apparent involvement with George Hincapie's Modern Adventure Pro Cycling team is currently outside of UCI jurisdiction meaning his lifetime ban from the sport is "not implicated" as things stand, the US anti-doping agency [USADA] has said.

The logo of The Move podcast, a joint venture between Hincapie and Armstrong, can clearly be seen on the jersey designs for the new project which is aiming to start life as a UCI Pro Team in 2026. The team has aspirations of reaching the Tour de France within the next five years.

The two former US Postal Service and Discovery Channel teammates are active with the podcast for much of the year before then increasing their output during the Tour. Other speakers include Johan Bruyneel - the duo’s former US Postal DS - and Sir Bradley Wiggins, who featured on the show during last year's race.

Armstrong received a lifetime ban from professional cycling after admitting in retirement that he had used performance enhancing drugs to cheat his way to seven Tour de France titles between 1999 to 2005. However, his apparent sponsorship of Modern Adventure with The Move is currently unaffected.

"As of now, our understanding is that this venture is outside the UCI jurisdiction and that of any WADA Code signatory. So, the lifetime ban on Lance Armstrong under the WADA Code is not implicated," a USADA spokesperson told Cycling Weekly on Wednesday evening, before highlighting that the situation could change if the team is granted a UCI licence once the registration process is complete.

At the time of the investigation into Armstrong's activity, USADA labelled the unveiled doping ring as the 'most sophisticated, professionalized and successful doping program that sport has ever seen'.

Hincapie denied any major involvement from his friend in the new project when asked about Armstrong in a recent press conference. "He is not involved in any way in the organisation or the structure of the team," he said. "But I will lean on him for advice from time to time, I’m sure."

Hincapie later told The Escape Collective that he and his team of associates had been "fully transparent" during the UCI registration process with the new project. "I am part-owner of the podcast along with Lance," he said. "I saw it as an opportunity to promote the team through those channels and gain more support through that outlet, as we have a big viewership during the Tour. No other affiliation beyond that. Looking forward to a great show this year talking about the Tour."

"The UCI registration process is still underway, and all sponsorship arrangements are part of that review," he added. "We've been fully transparent about the structure and are working with our legal team to ensure everything meets their requirements. We're very excited about what we're building and the momentum we have so far to help support cycling here in the USA and abroad."

Cycling Weekly contacted the UCI for comment and to ask whether Armstrong’s involvement in the team could be an issue moving forwards. The world governing body had not responded at the time of publication.

Sir Bradley Wiggins will be a special guest on Lance Armstrong's podcast, The Move, for the next week, it was revealed on Sunday.

Wiggins, the winner of the 2012 Tour de France, suggested to Cycling Weekly last month that he had a job lined up for the French Grand Tour, and has now appeared in his first podcast alongside Armstrong, discussing stage nine of the race.

Armstrong won seven Tours de France between 1999 and 2005, only to later have his yellow jerseys removed and his results scrubbed after a lengthy doping investigation and an admission that he took performance-enhancing drugs.

The Move, recorded in Aspen, Colorado, sees the American talk about the current world of professional cycling, joined by former teammate George Hincapie, and JB Hager. The website describes it as "an incisive perspective on the Tour de France and cycling, triathlon and endurance sports with special guest appearances, course previews and race analysis inside these worlds of suffering and splendor like no one else".

Wiggins is far from the only former or current rider to take part in the programme, with Mark Cavendish and Matteo Jorgenson among the active sportsmen to call into the show during this Tour.

Wiggins arrived in the USA to take part in the podcast on Saturday - after apparently dealing with some visa issues - and will be staying there during his guest appearances on the show. Hincapie described him as a "very nice guy, very funny".

"My son did all the logistics for me, Ben..." Wiggins explained. "He's been fathering me a lot recently."

Wiggins' appearance on the podcast follows widely reported financial issues. He has also spoken before of struggling with his mental health since leaving professional cycling.

In early June, The Times reported that Wiggins had been declared bankrupt, after going through financial difficulties with his company. When asked for comment in November last year, Wiggins told Cycling Weekly his financial difficulties were “a very historical matter that involves professional negligence from [others] that has left a s***pile with my name at the front of it to deal with.”

"I've experienced both sides of the coin," Wiggins said on the podcast. "When you retire, you don't know what to do with yourself... Since I was 13, all I had been was a cyclist. I went through this transition period, and your mental health is a lot better when you're working out every day. It was about working out a new equilibrium. I have to find a healthy balance, where you can train, but it doesn't have to be for something."

The five-time Olympic gold medal winner also revealed that he has taken up a new sport in the last year. He previously attempted to get into rowing in order to fill the space that was left by cycling.

"I took up boxing a year ago, in an attempt to learn something new, also to face my fears a bit," Wiggins said. "I'm quite anti-confrontational. I guess that's one of the fears, actually getting in the ring and fighting someone."

Professional cyclists could still be using methods, similar to those used by Lance Armstrong, to avoid testing positive during anti-doping tests, according to the full report from the Operación Ilex investigation. 

Armstrong notoriously managed to avoid testing positive during his career despite using performance enhancing drugs, including EPO, during his seven Tour de France victories. During the heights of his career he remained defiant and insisted he was clean due to never returning a positive test result. 

According to a report from Spanish outlet Marca, who carried out an in depth examination of the report from the doping investigation, athletes could still be using similar methods to those utilised by the Texan. 

A university professor in Spain - Dr Marcos Maynar of the University of Extremadura - was recently part of the Ilex investigation, having been accused of assisting Colombian rider Miguel Ángel López with alleged doping by providing banned drugs to the former Astana Qazaqstan and Movistar climber.

López was eventually dropped by Astana in December 2022 after the initial links to Maynar materialised earlier in the year. He remains adamant that he has never used performance enhancing drugs. 

In March this year it was revealed that López is now taking his former team to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) over what he claimed was an “unlawful” breach of his contract. 

According to a report by Cyclingnews, privacy laws in Spain mean that doping controls at athletes’ homes between the hours of 23:00 and 06:00 am are not permitted. There have been occasions where the UCI has been able to obtain special permission from Spanish authorities but that has only been in extreme cases. 

Information from the Civil Guard’s Public Health and Doping Section shows that riders in Spain would know that they have a large time window to enable their bodies to clear any illicit substances, before the hours in which testing is permitted in the country. 

As well as not being permitted to carry out night time tests, anti-doping officers cannot visit athletes at weekends. 

An anonymous anti-doping expert told Marca that riders could well be using this system to avoid detection.  

They said: “They have studies in which they know how long the substance lasts in their body and that means that, for example, doctors can 'prescribe' a substance at 11:01 p.m. so that, at 6:00 in the morning, there is no longer a trace in your body.” 

Cyclingnews' report explains that another area of concern for anti-doping authorities is the requirement for samples to be sent for analysis within 48 hours of being taken. This creates issues for countries with limited access to accredited laboratories. 

As a result in Spain, for example, blood samples taken as part of out-of-competition testing can only be taken until midday on Thursday’s to enable officers to meet the 48 hour window. 

The same anonymous source told Marca that this means riders are becoming even more aware of how they can manipulate the system. 

They said: "From Thursday night to Sunday they [riders] can do whatever they want because almost certainly no one will check them.” 

Lance Armstrong is remembered as the only cyclist to have won seven Tours de France only to later have his yellow jerseys nullified and his results vacated after a lengthy doping investigation and an admission that he took performance enhancing drugs.

Banned for life from sanctioned cycling events, Armstrong now appears to be seeking new and different challenges out of the saddle. On June 5, the Texan appeared as one of a dozen celebrity contestants on a new Fox television show titled Stars on Mars, which airs at 8 p.m. EST Mondays.

Among the contestants who join Armstrong are Marshawn Lynch and Richard Sherman, both of the American professional football team Seattle Seahawks; Olympic wrestler and MMA fighter Ronda Rousey; actress Ariel Winter of Modern Family; and Olympic medalist figure skater Adam Rippon. The series is hosted by William Shatner of Star Trek fame.

Armstrong and the others are presented with challenges which aim to simulate an exploratory mission to the red planet—including living, eating, and sleeping in very close quarters—over 25 days. Contestants are eliminated through voting by their peers.

“During their stay, they will be faced with authentic conditions that simulate life on Mars, and they must use their brains and brawn—or maybe just their stellar social skills—to outlast the competition and claim the title of ‘Brightest Star in the Galaxy,’” according to Fox.

There are no superdomestiques or leadout men, no team car, no rest days, and no doping controls on Mars. Does Armstrong have what it takes to win? I watched the first episode of the new reality TV show to find out. 

Does Lance Armstrong have what it takes to win a reality TV contest?

During his career, Armstrong had a reputation for bossing the peloton and demanding unwavering loyalty from his teammates when leading the Discovery Channel and the USPS outfits in the early 2000s. The American has never been one to ride as a domestique or settle for second, and he knows to keep eyes on his competition and even make friendships to suit his athletic goals.

How does the Texan interact with athletes, TV and movie stars, and personalities who eclipse his ego? While accustomed to living on team buses and sleeping in tiny hotel rooms, he seems to bristle at the close-quarter living conditions when forced to bunk with strangers.

When he was introduced to the other Stars on Mars contestants, there seemed to be some excitement, and even some confusion. Actress Ariel Winter seems to confuse Lance Armstrong with astronaut Neil Armstrong.

The retired cyclist noted his name similarity with the first man to set foot on the moon, but noted, “I’d rather be Lance.”

The recognizable former cyclist was one of the first to be considered as “base commander” to lead the group, but he let this leader’s jersey chance pass without contest, and Lynch quickly seized this opportunity.

The Lance and Marshawn show

In the first episode, Lynch and Armstrong quickly become frenemies and the egos start to clash. The retired NFL player and the former pro cyclist were seated next to each other on indoor bikes, and the Superbowl champion asks if Armstrong calls himself an athlete.

Armstrong retorts, “shut up,” and notes his athletic prowess is proven over weeks, not seconds. “I came from an endurance sport, and to me, this thing is all about endurance,” says Armtrong.

But Armstrong was quick to compliment the player nicknamed “Beast Mode” and recognize the Superbowl champion’s abilities. He observes that Lynch is “one of the toughest humans on the planet and not in any hurry to leave.”

Throughout the episode, some attention was given to the other contestants like Rousey, Rippon and Superbad actor Christopher Mintz-Plasse. But Lynch and Armstrong seem to command much of the action, and they both recognize this and play to their strengths of personality.

When the camera is on Armstrong as he embarks on one of the challenges thrown at the group, Lynch singles out Armstrong, and gives him a recognizable nickname. “I got your back Louis Armstrong."

Team tactics and solo wins in space

Armstrong appears to be strategizing about the overall podium rather than the day's contest. He seems affable but borderline arrogant at times. He recognizes the competition from other athletes, but he occasionally overlooks the other celebrity personalities, who are accustomed to gaming their environment to suit their needs.

Bike racing is a team sport, and teams have to frequently work with each other to achieve short- and long-term victories. Some teams hunt stages while others concern themselves with a singular goal. While Armstrong is a master tactician, we’ve seen him succeed through intimidation and dominance, among other methods.

So far, Armstrong demonstrates an understanding of his environment. But he won’t be able to rely on teammates or temporary alliances for long. I’ll tune in to see if his wheels come off, or not.

I was at a friend’s house recently when I spotted it. An old Wheaties cereal box on display in the kitchen. The orange box had faded edges. Its heavy, whole grain contents long past the expiration date. The reason it had been saved for so long —23 years and counting, in fact— is because it’s become a bit of a collector’s item. The box's chosen champion, wearing the yellow Tour de France jersey and depicted in blurred motion, is Lance Armstrong. 

To support its famous “Breakfast of Champions” slogan, General Mills has been featuring American athletes on the Wheaties packaging since 1937. And over the years, this tradition has become a bit of an indicator of an athlete’s stature in American culture. The likes of Babe Ruth, Muhammad Ali, Michael Jordan, Tiger Woods, Michael Phelps, Simone Biles and Serena Williams have all been featured. 

In 1999, after winning his first Tour de France yellow jersey, Armstrong was the first, and ‘till this day the only, American cyclist to grace the cereal box packaging. He would of course be stripped of this achievement along with all his other Tour de France wins in 2012, but the Wheaties box and, alarmingly, the cereal lives on. 

(Irish cyclist Alan McCormack, American Doug Smith and their teammates from the Wheaties-Schwinn team did precede Armstrong when their likenesses appeared on the cereal box in the 1980s, but that was to showcase the sponsored team not necessarily in recognition of individual achievements.)

Since Armstrong’s infamous Oprah Winfrey interview in 2013 that disgraced the American hero forever, road cycling has been on a steady decline in the United States. 

Participation at amateur and elite events across the country are dwindling, and international races like the Colorado Classic, the Tour of California and the Tour of Utah have all folded due to lack of financial support. 

Only four UCI races remain and they barely reach beyond the local newspapers, let alone offer enough incentive for international stars to come and cross the waters. And without a superhero to get behind, American sports fans pay little attention to what happens abroad, even if young American talent is netting stage wins.  

It seems that for cycling another Wheaties moment is a long way off. Or is it?

In search of a Wheaties Box Moment

Back in 2017 when the interest in gravel riding was really taking off, the hashtag #roadisdead started trending, and the bike industry was sitting on thousands of unsold rim brake road bikes, the then-President of USA Cycling, Derek Bouchard-Hall, told us not to panic. 

“Road is absolutely not dead,” he told me at the time. “It’s going through a midlife crisis.”

It’s cyclical, he explained. Cycling saw a boom in the 1980s and again in the early aughts. It would surely come again. And it did, to an extent. In 2020, the Covid pandemic led to a bicycle boom, just not the road racing kind.

What the racing fad of the 1980s and the early aughts have in common is an American cycling hero. First it was Greg LeMond and then Armstrong. Villain or not, no one can dispute that Armstrong’s victories and cancer story made him a household name — so much so that it was his image you were looking at as you poured your morning cereal into a bowl. 

After Armstrong’s retirement in 2005 the question became, who’s next? And it’s the question we’re still asking today though there’s a glimmer of hope on the horizon. 

“I’m optimistic. The industry is cyclical and road [cycling] has been in the hurt locker for quite a while,” USA Cycling’s current CEO tells Cycling Weekly. “We’re seeing the strongest U.S. men’s presence in Europe in 15-18 years.”

Indeed, the latest crop of American WorldTour riders like Joe Dombrowski (Astana Qazaqstan Team), Quinn Simmons (Trek-Segafredo), Sepp Kuss (Jumbo-Visma), Brandon McNulty (UAE TEam Emirates) and Neilson Powless (EF Education-Easypost) are demonstrating that Americans not only belong in the WorldTour circuit, they have the potential to win even the biggest races.

Kuss soloed to a mountain top stage win in the 2021 Tour de France and has shown heaps of promise. A the same time, McNulty has played a critical role for Slovenian star Tadej Pogačar in the mountains for several Grand Tours now, and then there’s Powless, who narrowly missed out on the Maillot Jaune on stage 5 of this year’s Tour, and gave American fans everywhere a reason to get up at the crack of dawn to turn on the T.V.

“We — USA Cycling— exist to grow the sport of bike racing across the U.S. And for us, two things have proven to grow the sport of bike racing. One, heroic riders like Neilson [Powless]...Neilson is the future of American bike racing. American fans were all shouting at their TVs this summer as he was fighting for the yellow jersey at the Tour de France,” says Quirk. 

Of course, since Armstrong’s disgrace, the U.S. has seen some incredible female cycling stars with the likes of three-time gold Olympic medalist Kristin Armstrong; climber Mara Abbott who became the first American to win Italy’s Grand Tour, the Giro Rosa; and Coryn Labecki who, in 2017, made history by becoming the first American, man or woman, to win the Tour of Flanders —  just to name a few. 

“Our women have long been our strongest asset,” Quirk agreed. “But unfortunately these athletes have not been getting the public attention they deserve, though that is changing, '' Quirk says. 

Hence no Wheaties box…yet!

The other thing that promotes growth is international races on U.S. soil. The inaugural Maryland Cycling Classic, won by Belgian Sep VanMarcke (Israel-Premier Tech), in August serves exactly that purpose. 

It was one of just four UCI races in the U.S. in 2022 and the highest ranked one at that, carrying a UCI Class 1 ProSeries status.

It was also the first time the U.S. had hosted an international world-class field since the 2019 Amgen Tour of California, a multi-day WorldTour race that was last won by Tadej Pogačar. 

Quirk called it the "most important bike race that’s happened in America in the last five years," and hopes it will reignite some of America's cycling fandom. 

Domestically, there are small signs of the pendulum swinging in cycling’s favor as well. 

“When I look to local associations in American cities, I see growth and momentum, says Quirk. 

Quirk explains that at USA Cycling success is measured in two ways: membership and the number of USA Cycling-sanctioned race days.

“Road has been on a steady decline since 2013, but —not looking at the Covid years— we’re actually seeing growth in membership and we’re hitting our forecasted numbers in terms of race days,” he says.

Initiatives like the L39ion of Los Angeles and their influence in the crit scene are another step in the right direction. 

“L39ion is doing a fabulous job to make cycling resonate in new communities. [Team owners] Justin and Corey [Williams] want to produce superheroes and we support that. Americans love their superheroes,” says Quirk.

“We’ve absolutely got potential heroes. In time they’re going to win a Spring Classic, the yellow jersey [at the Tour de France].”

For USA Cycling, the task before them now is looking for new pathways to get participants who are flocked to gravel and Gran Fondo events into “more traditional racing.”

This is, of course, with an eye on the governing body’s rather ambitious goals for the coming six years. In June the federation announced that it’s set a goal of 7 to 10 medals at the Paris Olympics in 2024 and another 12-15 medals at the Los Angeles Olympics in 2028, with world championship podiums along the way.

“A yellow jersey at the Tour de France, the world championships, the Olympics — they transcend everything,” Quirk says. 

“An American on the top step of those podiums, that will be our Wheaties Box moment.”

Last week, Movistar released the long-awaited third season of their Netflix series 'The Least Expected Day'. 

The series is an insightful documentary going behind the scenes into life in the Movistar camp at the Grand Tours over the last three years. Viewers get an access all areas pass to be a fly on the wall in disputes over tactics, rows over who is the team’s leader at the Giro d’Italia and to see riders at their lowest point after crashing out of major races. 

In the latest series, the highlight is undoubtedly an inside look at the row between Miguel Ángel López and team management at the 2021 Vuelta a España which ultimately resulted in ‘Superman’ climbing off the bike and refusing to continue. 

If you enjoyed watching the latest instalment of 'The Least Expected Day', then here’s eight of the best of the rest in cycling-related films and documentaries available to view online. 

Some are available free of charge whereas others require a small fee. Depending on where you are in the world, you might have more or less choice on any of these streaming platforms; this was written from what we can get in the UK.

 SLAYING THE BADGER 

Available to stream on Disney Plus, 'Slaying the Badger’ is a documentary looking back at the pivotal 1986 Tour de France and is based on the book by the late Richard Moore. 

Now that Lance Armstrong has been firmly scratched from Tour de France record books, Greg LeMond is the first and only American rider to have ever won the three-week race. In the film, LeMond reflects on his rivalry and friendship with his teammate, mentor and five-time Tour de France champion Bernard Hinault. 

Legend has it that Hinault agreed to help LeMond to his first Tour de France victory in return for the American agreeing to work for him during the previous year. The film swiftly lays bare the dynamics of the La Vie Claire team during the 1986 race and what then happened out on the road. 

ICARUS 

Currently available on Netflix, ‘Icarus’ is a 2017 Oscar-winning American documentary film. 

It chronicles the writer Bryan Fogel’s exploration into the murky world of doping in order to win an amateur cycling race. In the process of doing so, he inadvertently discovers a major international doping scandal. 

Fogel enlists the help of a scientist named Grigory Rodchenkov, the director of Russia’s national anti-doping laboratory. 

What he then discovers causes shock waves throughout the world of sport and ultimately results in Rodchenkov being kept in protective custody by US Law Enforcement. 

ONBOARD THE TRANSCONTINENTAL RACE 

Available on Netflix, this 2019 documentary looks into the gruelling Transcontinental race. 

Twenty-four-year-old Fiona Kolbinger took first place making her the first female winner of the event. The film directed by Antonin Michaud Soret is an inside look at just what it takes to ride the most challenging of bike races. 

Watching the film leaves you feeling like you’re riding along with competitors on 18-hour days, across Europe's most breath-taking scenery in the ultimate test of cycling endurance.

LANCE 

This two-part documentary chronicling the fall from grace of Lance Armstrong is currently available to view on the BBC iPlayer. 

Based on in-depth interviews and conversations with the Texan, the two 90-minute long films tell the full story of his rise in the United States as a top level cyclist, as well as his battle with testicular cancer and recovery.

The film then continues to go over his rise to cycling stardom that came with his seven consecutive Tour de France yellow jerseys, before that dramatic interview with television host Oprah Winfrey in which Armstrong famously confessed to doping throughout his career. 

THE RACER

Currently available to stream for free on Amazon Prime, 'The Racer' is a fictional story of a pro cyclist called Felix who dreams of becoming world champion. 

Once the protagonist joins a team in Italy, he is dragged into the murky waters of corruption and performance-enhancing drugs. 

How far is Felix willing to go to pursue his dream of the rainbow bands?

BREAKING THE CYCLE

'Breaking the Cycle' is the story of former ski-mountaineer Anton Palzer’s journey to becoming a professional cyclist. 

Palzer currently rides for Bora-Hansgrohe and the German rider was recently given a new contract by his team for next season. The film on Amazon Prime sees Palzer as well as his coaches and team manager Ralf Denk talk through the 29-year-old’s journey and his first steps into pro racing at the 2021 Tour of the Alps and Tour de Suisse. 

Currently available to stream with Amazon Prime and on the Red Bull website. 

THE TRIPLETS OF BELLEVILLE / BELLEVILLE RENDEZVOUS

Currently available on Amazon Prime, 'Belleville Rendezvous' should be top of anyone’s must watch cycling films. An absolute classic, which beautifully depicts the passion of cycling through the eyes of one of the protagonists' grandchildren. 

Although there is a twist. 

Madame Souza instills a love of cycling in her young grandson who eventually becomes a road racer dreaming of lining up at the Tour de France. However, when he eventually arrives at the French Grand Tour he goes missing. 

Madame Souza and her faithful pet dog are then left with the daunting task of discovering what has become of her young cycling prodigy. 

THE PROGRAM

'The Program' regularly turns up on the various streaming platforms out there including the BBC iPlayer. It’s currently available to rent on Amazon Prime. 

Based on the book ‘Seven Deadly Sins: My pursuit of Lance Armstrong’ by award-winning journalist David Walsh, the film depicts the author's efforts to expose the Texan's wrongdoings as a drugs cheat.

Chris O’Dowd plays Walsh in the motion picture, which also features Dustin Hoffman and Jesse Plemons.

Who were you out with on your Sunday spin? Probably just a couple of mates, or your local cycling club. One imagines that you were not joined by a disgraced former seven-time Tour de France winner, but that's just my best guess.

Valtteri Bottas is no ordinary cyclist. The Finn has won 10 Formula 1 races, and has finished second in the overall championship twice. On Sunday, he popped out for a 105km ride in Colorado with none other than Lance Armstrong.

Ten years on from the USADA Reasoned Decision which exposed the extent of Armstrong's doping, the Texan was joined by the Alfa Romeo driver on the roads around Aspen on Sunday.

As shown in his Strava public post, Bottas rode with Armstrong for almost four hours, also sharing pictures on Twitter with the caption "out with the locals."

The pair were also joined by other riders; current Canyon-SRAM rider Tiffany Cromwell appears in the 'other athletes' tab on both Bottas and Armstrong's rides. 

Armstrong is still considered a bit of a persona non grata within the world of cycling, with his ban from cycling preventing him from attending some races in an official capacity.

His seven Tour titles were stripped from his palmarés, along with his multiple stage wins at the same race, as a result of the revelations of 2012.

The American still opines on the world of cycling through his podcast THEMOVE, which includes guests such as his former DS Johan Bruyneel, who is also banned from the sport due to his role in doping scandals.

Bottas is known to be a big fan of cycling, regularly riding with Cromwell, his partner. 

“Adding in different sorts of training is important to me, and something that I need because the F1 circus is so hectic and it's nonstop. It’s the driving part and the testing and the visits to the factory and all the sponsor days and that kind of thing that people don't see,” he told Cycling Weekly earlier this month.

Some people on social media warned Bottas off associating with Armstrong. One person tweeted: "I would be careful about taking training advice from him."

One comedian pointed out that the Finnish racing driver has as many Tour wins as the infamous American cyclist these days.

Bottas was in the USA post the Miami Grand Prix, where he finished seventh. His partner Cromwell recently came third in April's North Carolina edition of the Belgium Waffle Ride, where Bottas helped hand out bottles and also took a podium in the shorter men's race. 

If there was one thing Lance Armstrong could conjure up to make himself an even more controversial character, it was to enter the NFT space.

NFTs, or Non-Fungible Tokens, are units of digital data stored on blockchains. In plain English, they can be anything from a photo, video, or piece of audio, with a permanent record of ownership stored digitally, and although they've been around since 2014 their popularity skyrocketed in 2021.

Armstrong isn't the first cyclist to get involved. NFTs depicting Wout van Aert's biggest victories sold for a total of €47,000, while Colnago became the first bike brand to auction off a C64 FT bike that sold for $8,592, $2,300 more than the actual model of the bike.

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Armstrong has acquired an NFT from Apex Optimizers, who claim to be the first NFT project focused on health optimisation, which seems to entail a combination of purchasing one of 888 images of multi-coloured leopards (not cheetahs, as some funny people on the internet have joked) and subsequently unlocking "$600,000+ worth of benefits including access to top athletes and founders, multi-brand discounts and early product drops, and virtual and IRL wellness experiences".

"I finally feel like one of the cool kids. Got into the #NFT game," Armstrong tweeted alongside an image of his NFT, a leopard wearing a crown on a yellow background, a more subtle hint than the infamous image of him lying on the sofa below seven framed yellow jerseys. "Vest game on point as well," he added.

"I think doping might actually be marginally more popular with the public than NFTs Lance," one person replied, with others saving the image and re-uploading, telling Armstrong he should have used the "buy zero get four free" option like them.

It appears Armstrong didn't purchase his NFT and it was instead transferred to him by Apex Optimizers, according to transaction records, presumably with some deal in place where free promotion is exchanged for jpeg images.

At the moment, it doesn't appear the project will be as lucrative for Armstrong as his early Uber investment, with only three leopard images sold in the last week for an average of $197 each.

"Welcoming accomplished athlete to the AO family," Apex Optimizers tweeted. "Further bringing the conversation of the importance of health and wellness to the metaverse," accompanied by a rocket ship emoji that will presumably be taking Armstrong and his fellow leopard brethren to the moon.

Jan Ullrich has spoken out about how he was close to suffering the same fate as Marco Pantani, saying that he was "almost dead" when Lance Armstrong went to see him in 2018.

Ullrich, who's career was tarnished by a doping scandal, spoke about his history of issues with alcohol and drugs that led to alleged physical attacks but now he feels "very happy", as he's cycling with a healthy diet.

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Speaking in Armstrong's podcast, The Move, in Mallorca along with George Hincapie and Johan Bruyneel, Ullrich said: "Three years ago I had big problems and then you came to see me. I was so glad you came and yes, I was just like Marco Pantani. Almost dead. And then I recover and I have good friends, now I am very happy.”  

The German spoke about how he is back cycling again with his new healthy lifestyle: “God gave me this body and God gave me this talent. With me it's either nothing or full throttle. I have my coach for my back muscles. I train every day and drink water. I live very healthy, my girlfriend cooks very healthy for me."

Ullrich said that he had forgotten what was good for him "for 20 or 15 years," with the rejuvenated lifestyle and cycling helping him recover from his addiction problems.

"Cycling is good," he continued. "Hang-out with friends. Love. My children. My family. I had forgotten all that. That was my problem."

Ullrich was runner-up to Armstrong at the Tour de France three times between 2000 and 2003, with Ullrich also taking third in 2005. The latter was struck off due to doping, as were all seven of Armstrong's titles.

Armstrong, when introducing Ullrich to the show, gave the 47-year-old German huge praise saying: "He's a very special person. Not just a great guy but he's been a great friend and I've tried to be a great friend to him.

"He was our biggest rival, he was the guy that got us up every day, I didn't care about anybody else. All these other guys that thought they were contenders, they were straight-up pretenders."

Ullrich podiumed at the Tour seven times including one victory in 1997 when he beat Richard Virenque and the late Marco Pantani.

The former boss of French Anti-Doping has accused Lance Armstrong of motor-doping during his career, saying that the Texan's admittance of using EPO can't solely explain his performances.

"Lance Armstrong, this is the best scam. With complicity at all levels. He got special treatment. Many told me that I should not tackle legends, that I was going to find myself alone. But if the legends are mounted on anything...I also believe that he had a motor in the bike," Jean-Pierre Verdy told French television programme Stade 2 during an interview.

Motor doping, or mechanical doping, is a method of cheating by using a hidden motor inside the bike to add power, this 'technological fraud' is banned by the UCI.

"I still have the images in my head of a mountain stage where everyone is collecting themselves and he leaves everyone on the ground. At the end of the stage, I call all the specialists I know, and they don't understand how this performance is possible, even with EPO. There was something wrong, and all the specialists were telling me the same thing...it was not the EPO that made the difference."

In January 2018, former pro Thomas Voeckler told Le Parisien that he wouldn't be shocked if it turned out that Lance Armstrong had motor-doped.

Lance Armstrong has previously commented on allegations of motor-doping, saying during an interview on Irish radio that he was never offered a motorised bike.

“Absolutely not,” he said when asked if doping doctor Michele Ferrari ever offered him a motorised bike. If he would ever have considered using one, Armstrong said, "of course not."

The host, Ger Gilroy, then asked him what the difference was between using a motorised bike and EPO, which Armstrong confessed to using during his career.

“Ger, are you a complete rookie? In 1999, no one even knew you could put a motor [in a bike]. Are you out of your mind?” Armstrong said.

“I know that it’s topical. I know there has been a rider caught with a motor in her bike. But, are you crazy?”

Verdy was the founder and director of the French Anti-Doping Agency (AFLD) between 2006 and 2015, and says his vigour for the fight for clean sport stems from one of the first cases the agency dealt with, the death of a 20-year-old cyclist who had been doping. "Did Armstrong use it? With him, I'd no longer be shocked by anything," the Frenchman said.

The Frenchman has a book out, titled 'Doping: my war against cheaters', and says that while there is an omerta present in football, and that cycling isn't the only sport affected by doping, it is cycling that is at the forefront of new doping products.

"Doping does not affect all athletes, only a minority," Verdy explained. "Cycling remains quite emblematic. Historically, cyclists are the ones who slow down the fight against doping the most, and who are on the front line to find the new drugs that have just been released.

"It calmed down anyway because I had programmed controls on all levels of competitions, trying to remain unpredictable to carry danger everywhere. I made the peloton bitch by ordering operations with a lot of controls. In some events, not just in cycling, I had to ask the doping testers to come forward at the last moment before the start. As soon as the rumor circulated that there was a control, athletes gave up. It is not usual to give up after two kilometres."

Verdy says he wrote the book because the burden had become a lot to bear, and his doctor kept increasing his blood pressure medication, and that a number of pages containing names had to be removed for legal reasons.

"It frees me and at the same time I hope that it will move the dial, cause some reaction, that the brakes will be removed so that the fight against doping has more weight," Verdy said. "I took three years to write this book, and it was thicker. On the advice of my editor I had to reformulate some passages and remove names, to avoid legal proceedings. I still have some under my elbow."

Lance Armstrong has been contacted for comment

Lance Armstrong has tipped Mathieu van der Poel to win the Tour of Flanders this weekend. 

Disgraced former rider Armstrong, a winner of seven Tours de France before he was banned from the sport for doping, has shared his thoughts on the upcoming cobbled Monument, alongside his former sports director Johan Bruyneel and ex-team-mate George Hincapie.

Speaking on the latest episode of his podcast THEMOVE, Armstrong picked out Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Fenix) as his favourite to win a second consecutive title in Flanders. 

Armstrong, who has been banned from cycling for life and was stripped of all seven of his Tour de France victories for taking performance enhancing drugs, said: “[Van der Poel] knows what he's doing, I like the way he races.”

The trio recapped the events of Ghent-Wevelgem last weekend, won by Van der Poel’s great rival Wout van Aert (Jumbo-Visma) and looked ahead to the Tour of Flanders on Sunday (March 4).

Bruyneel, who has also been banned from cycling for life for his involvement in doping, said: “[Van Aert] and Van der Poel are so good. They ride one level higher than the rest. Van Aert won in Wevelgem and actually nobody doubted that it would go that way. 

“He was on the road with the best sprinters, but he rode smart.

“I think he would have beaten [Sam] Bennett - on paper among the three fastest sprinters in the world - if he hadn't suddenly seen the light go out.” 

But Bruyneel picked Deceuninck - Quick-Step’s Zdenek Štybar to take victory in the second Monument of the season this weekend, while Hincapie picked out world champion Julian Alaphilippe.

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Brunyeel said: “At Deceuninck - Quick-Step it is sometimes an advantage not to be the leader. 

“This year they already have 14 victories with different riders. After Ghent-Wevelgem they will not have been happy, in the Ronde the better ones will automatically emerge and they will be there. ”  

Lance Armstrong would have won the Tour de France without doping, according to legendary cycling commentator Phil Liggett. 

Liggett, who has been dubbed the ‘voice of cycling’ after decades of Tour de France TV commentary, said he admired the Texan for his achievements off the bike but that he “can’t condone drug cheats". 

Armstrong, who won seven consecutive Tour de France titles before he was stripped of the results, has been banned from cycling for life for doping.

In an interview with 7NEWS in Australia Liggett, 77, said: “When Lance realised that the Tour de France was drug-ridden, he told his team ‘We’ll do it and we’ll do it better than they do it.’

“And if they didn’t agree, they were off the team. Most of his team had to take drugs just to back him up...because Lance was exceptional.”

Liggett said that Armstrong would take his team to the iconic Alpe d’Huez climb in France and ride to the top in training, before descending the mountain and taking the climb on again: “And he wasn’t taking drugs when he went training. He was naturally just extremely good.” 

When asked if Armstrong could have won without the drugs, Liggett said "no question.” 

Liggett was a friend and ally of Armstrong during his peak years, the late 1990s to the mid-2000s.  

But the British broadcaster said he and Armstrong had not spoken as friends since 2011. 

Liggett said he still admires Armstrong for what he achieved away from cycling, beating cancer himself before raising hundreds of millions for cancer research. 

A new feature-length documentary will track the life of the famed cycling commentator, which is set to be released in Australian cinemas on March 11. 

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Lance Armstrong would have been the strongest rider of his generation even without doping, Johan Brunyeel has claimed. 

Armstrong and his former manager Brunyeel are both banned from cycling for life for their involvement in systematic doping, while Armstrong was stripped of all seven of his Tour de France victories. 

In an interview with Eurosport in France, Bruyneel said he has accepted responsibility for his role in the Armstrong doping scandal, but says he takes issue with the severity of the punishment. 

Brunyeel, a Belgian former pro and team manager who worked with Armstrong from 1999 until 2011, said: “Lance's character has been murdered. This collective demonisation is easy to do, but impossible to undo. It's hard to take, especially since there has been a lot of hypocrisy.

“Doping or not, throughout the history of cycling, every great champion has always been the best of his generation. And Lance is no exception to this rule. Tell me what changed in cycling after Lance? Nothing.”

In 2012 Bruyneel was initially banned from cycling for 10 years by the American Arbitration Association, but his attempt to appeal the ban resulted in the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) banning him for life in October 2018.

The CAS ruling said that between 1997 and 2007 the Belgian former pro had been “at the apex of a multitude of doping violations” and had helped and encouraged riders to dope as part of a “widespread and systematic doping program.”

During his career as a sports director and team manager, Bruyneel was involved in all seven of Armstrong’s Tour victories. 

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When asked whether he or Armstrong would want to return to cycling, Brunyeel said: “I am suspended for life and I do not see who could reverse this decision.

“It’s not so much a comeback that we would be interested in - it’s simply to be accepted.”

Johan Bruyneel says he will not be watching the recent Lance Armstrong documentary as he "already knows what happened".

The 55-year-old Belgian is currently serving a lifetime ban from cycling for his role in the doping scandal that saw Armstrong stripped of his seven Tour de France victories, with the Texan's career and doping having been the subject of an ESPN '30 for 30' documentary, titled 'Lance'.

"In addition, I don't feel like listening to musicians such as Jonathan Vaughters, Tyler Hamilton or Betsy Andreu again," Bruyneel explained to Het Laatste Nieuws. "I haven't seen a documentary or film about Armstrong anyway. So much has already been said or written that everyone can now form their own opinion."

Armstrong has also said he's not a fan of the film, which was shown to him at his home in Austin, Texas, by director Marina Zenovich in December 2019, with Armstrong taking objection to the Greg LeMond portion of the documentary, where the American is quoted saying Lance's story is either "the greatest comeback in the history of sport" or "the greatest fraud". Armstrong then didn't show up to the film's premiere in January 2020 at the Sundance Film Festival.

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Emma O'Reilly, the soigneur turned whistleblower who became a central figure in the Armstrong doping scandal, has also tweeted her thanks for the 48-year-old American's apology in the documentary, asking people to now move on.

"After the doc, I'd like to say it was nice of Lance Armstrong to once again apologise. But it's done, it was done between him and I and Johan Bruyneel years ago. I'm really tired of all the haters. Can we just move on and show a bit of compassion to our fellow men."

At the time of his suspension, Bruyneel said he regretted his actions but that his lifetime ban was too severe, saying: "I have now accepted it. I take responsibility for what happened and I regret it. But I should never have been suspended for life…"

In March 2020, Bruyneel revealed he sought psychological help in the aftermath of the 2012 USADA report that placed the Belgian at the centre of the US Postal Service’s doping operation.

“It was a major lesson in life. I’m now a different person. 20 years older and 20 years wiser. Sometimes, I have the feeling that I’d really hit rock bottom and that I’d never recover. I was given medical help, both mental and physical, throughout that time," Bruyneel told Cycling Opinions.

Bruyneel went on to say he is more regretful of the way he and his team behaved, rather than the actual doping, adding that using performance-enhancing drugs was "inevitable" at that time and might still be today.

Lance Armstrong didn't like the Greg LeMond section of the ESPN documentary on his life and career, the film's director has revealed.

Marina Zenovich, who has previously won Emmy's for her work, said LeMond refused to be interviewed for 'Lance', the second and final part of which aired on May 31, but that Armstrong still took umbrage with the archive interview included from the three-time Tour de France winner.

"He doesn't think I represented the Greg LeMond section as truthfully as I could have," Zenovich told Insider.

"When Lance won the prologue to the 1999 Tour, I was close to tears," says LeMond in the archive footage shown. "When I heard he was working with Michele Ferrari, I was devastated. If Lance is clean, it is the greatest comeback in the history of sport. If he isn't, it would be the greatest fraud."

The documentary then goes on to imply that at the time Armstrong tried to ruin LeMond's relationship with Trek in retaliation for LeMond's stance.

>>> Seven things we learnt from the new Lance Armstrong documentary

"There are still very specific things that I think still upset him," Zenovich added. "For some of these people they just want to move on, and for others, they don't, but I had to tell the whole story."

Zenovich said she is confident everything presented in her documentary is accurate, and also that she included the scene where Armstrong cuts his finger while cooking at home because she thought "people want to see him bleed".

Zenovich said the scene, where Armstrong is helping to prepare dinner with his fiancée Anna Hansen, was kept in to show viewers Armstrong's lack of understanding of the world outside of cycling.

"In the footage, he's trying to help but he doesn't really know how to," she said. "He doesn't know how to use a cheese peeler. That was so shocking. It's not in the movie, but one person I interviewed told me, 'Lance went into a wind tunnel as a teenager and came out a grownup.' His whole life all he's been geared towards is being an athlete."

Zenovich went to Austin, Texas, in December 2019 to show Armstrong the finished film, with the 48-year-old airing his dissatisfaction with the LeMond section.

When the documentary was premiered at the 2020 Sundance Film Festival back in January, Armstrong didn't show up.

Tyler Hamilton has suggested Lance Armstrong still hasn’t told the whole truth in his latest documentary.

Armstrong had previously vowed to tell the whole truth in the two-part film investigating the life, career and cheating of the disgraced seven-time Tour de France winner.

But Hamilton, who rode alongside Armstrong on the US Postal Service team from 1998 to 2002, has said he “doesn’t think we’ve seen enough of the past from him or from a lot of individuals.”

In the three-hour long documentary, Armstrong reveals he first doped when he was 21 and that he maintains a feeling of hostility towards another former team-mate, Floyd Landis.

Appearing on the Off the Ball podcast Hamilton, who was banned for doping himself and stripped of an Olympic gold medal, said: “I’d love to see more of the truth. The whats, the whys, the how – all that. Not anything against Lance but for the future of cycling, for the younger generations of the sport. I don’t think we’ve seen enough of the past from him or from a lot of individuals.”

Hamilton added that there are a lot of “half-truths out there.”

Hamilton won the gold medal in the time trial at the 2004 Olympics in Athens, but he was later stripped of the result after testing positive for blood doping.

He was also implicated in the Operation Puerto blood doping ring in 2006, then failed another doping test in 2009 and was given an eight-year ban, which led to his retirement.

In 2012 Hamilton then co-authored an explosive book – The Secret Race: Inside the Hidden World of the Tour de France: Doping, cover-ups, and winning at all costs – which revealed details of cheating inside the professional peloton.

>>> Seven things we learnt from the new Lance Armstrong documentary

Hamilton says he still lives with the consequences of writing that book: “There are plenty of consequences for telling a half-truth, but you might be able to stay in the sport. When you tell the full truth like me, you’re out.”

It's the story and character that many cycling fans wish would disappear to never return, but the story of Lance Armstrong continues to be one that dominates the sport. Any slight update in the life of the Texan or provocative soundbite continues to be devoured.

Enter, therefore, ESPN's latest 30 for 30 documentary, simply titled 'Lance'. Over three hours, filmmaker Marina Zenovich gains access to Armstrong who promises he is now finally done with lying, as well as his family, former team-mates, friends, and enemies.

The whole story is told from start to finish in the true American sports documentary style you'd expect, with the first part available via the ESPN Player from Monday May 25 and the second part airing on May 31. 'Lance' follows the network's success with 'The Last Dance', which documents basketball legend Michael Jordan's career. Lance Armstrong is another intriguing figure who transcends his sport.

But what does this new documentary tell us that the other ones don't? Having had a few years to reflect on everything since his doping confession to Oprah Winfrey, Armstrong is as combative as ever, and age hasn't completely mellowed the 48-year-old as he sheds new light on the greatest doping scandal in sporting history.

His expectations of life after Oprah

The bigger you are the harder you fall, a notion that was not lost on Lance Armstrong in the aftermath of his doping confession in 2013.

"When my life took the turn that it took, I said to myself that everywhere that I go for the rest of my life somebody is going to walk up to me and say 'f*ck you'.

"And so a couple of days go by and nobody says f*ck you, then months go by and years go by...I always know when somebody wants to say f*ck you but nobody does, nobody ever does. It took five years..."

That incident, five years later, involved a group of guys outside a bar who spotted Armstrong and yelled profanities at him. Instead of Armstrong marching over there, which he says he would have done in years past, he instead called the bar up and gave his credit card details to pay for the group's food and drinks.

"I have to act, I'm me. Me. Lance Armstrong doesn't just let sh*t like that happen and not do something," the Texan explains.

The offer had a catch, though.

"You [the bartender] have to go out there and say, 'guys, Lance took care of everything and he sends his love.'"

Robbed of his accolades, star power, respect, Armstrong still has one thing that gives him power, money. His podcast generates $1 million in revenue, while an early $100,000 investment in Uber netted him tens of millions of dollars, saving him from the financial ruin of the lawsuits that followed his doping admittance.

Was the conciliatory gesture to the guys in the bar a sincere apology? While Armstrong may have lost the argument, the fact he can still flex his financial might allow him to still have the last word.

Armstrong started doping aged 21, seven years before his first Tour de France victory

One of the first questions asked is at what age Armstrong started doping. He balks: "Wow straight into that. I was probably 21."

In the Oprah interview, Armstrong admitted to doping to win all seven of his Tour de France titles, but the rainbow jersey he won in 1993, six years before his first yellow one, is the biggest victory of his that still stands.

It would appear Armstrong has now let go of this victory too, admitting he started using cortisones during his first professional season the year before the 1993 Road World Championships in Oslo.

"The rumours of EPO began in 1993, but people were scared of it," Armstrong says. "There were all these ideas that people were dying from it. Then I won the Worlds in '93 somehow, wore the rainbow jersey through '94 and got my ass kicked all year long, wearing the world champion's jersey.

"We had already been dabbling in low-octane cortisone, whatever was around, but EPO was a whole other level. The performance benefits were so great that the sport went from low-octane to this really high-octane rocket fuel, so that was the decision we had to make. "

Armstrong says for two seasons in 1994 and 1995 him and his team refused to touch EPO and subsequently struggled for results.

"EPO was like wildfire but we refused. Nobody on Motorola in '94 made that leap. All the way through the year nobody had any results. Then in '95 it was even crazier, it was everywhere."

Former team-mate, and now EF Pro Cycling boss, Jonathan Vaughters, says this inability to compete drove Armstrong crazy, with the Texan initially wanting those using EPO to be caught.

"He should've been, at that point in time, progressing in his career but instead he was regressing, and the anger... you could just feel it coming off of him," Vaughters says. "As he called it at that moment, 'there's an EPO epidemic going on, these motherf*ckers need to be caught, taken out.'"

Armstrong eventually relented, though, then claiming he asked Eddy Merckx to introduce him to Michele Ferrari, who was the doctor behind the Gewiss team and had been working with Merckx's son Axel. Eddy Merckx has said he didn't know Ferrari was involved with doping practices.

"I went there in the winter of '95 and started working with [Ferrari] in the winter of '96," Armstrong says. The rest was history.

He thinks doping may have caused his cancer

Armstrong is asked whether he believes his doping caused his cancer: "I don't know the answer to that, and I don't want to say no because I don't think that's right either, I don't know if it's yes or no, but I certainly wouldn't say no," he says.

"The only thing I will tell you is the only time in my life I ever did growth hormone was the 1996 season, so just in my head I'm like 'growth, growing hormones and cells, if anything good needs to be grown it does, but wouldn't it also make sense that if anything bad was there it too would grow?'"

After recovering from cancer, Armstrong struggles during his comeback season with Cofidis, the French team then dropping him at the end of the season, and the only team that would take him was the US Postal Service team.

Armstrong struggles at Paris-Nice in 1998, failing to finish the first stage. "That was one of the few times in my life I saw Lance where he wasn't sure of himself," former team-mate George Hincapie recalls.

"I went over and got my ass kicked," Armstrong adds, looking confused at this concept.

Was the decision to then start doing EPO again a difficult one?

"No," he chuckles, before falling silent. Zenovich waits, then saying: "because..?" with Armstrong then cursing under his breath at the prompt to continue before elaborating: "In many ways, and this is not going to be a popular answer, EPO is a safe drug, assuming certain things: it's taken properly, under the guidance of a medical professional, taken in conservative amounts, there are far worse things you can put in your body."

The effect the fallout had on his eldest son

One particular interesting part of the documentary is meeting Armstrong's eldest son, Luke, a college football player. Lance is filmed giving a talk to his son and his team-mates at Rice University in Texas, where he gets his son's jersey number wrong, with Luke picking him up on this afterwards.

"I never really bring up who I am as I believe it'll make me come off as someone I'm not," Luke says in his interview.

"I mean it is part of who I am, but at the end of the day it's not what describes me, there's so much more than that."

He's asked if he'd ever take performance-enhancing drugs, to which he shakes his head. "I mean for me, I've always felt grinding for something and really working for a specific goal has always been so much more worth it than taking a shortcut. I also feel if I ever did that and got caught, for random people, they would be like 'he's just like his dad.'"

It's a fascinating segment, seeing the truly personal effects that Armstrong's doping had on those closest to him. Earlier in the documentary, Lance's step-father, Terry Armstrong, takes the credit for his step-son's competitive streak, saying: "I drove him like an animal." Lance puts the physical abuse he suffered a little more matter of factly: "He beat the sh*t out of me."

Lance is then asked how he would feel if Luke was to ever use performance-enhancing drugs.

"If we were ever in the position where Luke, who's a college football player, came to me and said either 'I'd like to try this' or 'I'm doing this' I would say that's a bad idea. You're a freshman in college... it might be a different conversation if you're in the NFL but at this point in your life in your career, not worth it."

Lance is living up to his promise to be honest at the very least, while Luke goes on to say it was important he chose to be an offensive lineman rather than follow his father's footsteps into the peloton.

"I think it was important that I played football, that [my sport] wasn't cycling so that I had my own path to be myself, to be Luke and not be Lance's son."

Both Luke (and Lance's son) were 12 years old at the time of the Oprah Winfrey interview.

"My dad eventually had to sit me down and say [doping] happened, [what they're saying] is right, stop sticking up for me, trying to protect me," Luke says. "To receive that news as a little kid, that really flipped my world upside down."

He insisted on going into school the same day: "I didn't want to show it was really affecting me."

His mum, Kristin, recalls dropping him off that day, with kids crowded on the lawn at the front of the school.

"He took a step out that car and a step into real manhood, it broke my heart into a thousand pieces," Kristin admits.

In the Oprah interview, Lance said: "He [Luke] never said, 'Dad, is this true?' He trusted me."

Treatment of Emma O'Reilly and Filippo Simeoni is 'the worst thing he's ever done'

"What's the worst thing you've ever done?" Lance is asked, promptly flipping it around. "Everyone in the world needs to get this question," he responds, yet not everyone has had to settle a $100m lawsuit with the federal government of the United States or called a colleague a whore in sworn testimony.

That colleague was Emma O'Reilly, the soigneur at US Postal Service who told the Sunday Times' David Walsh about the doping that had been going on.

"To call a woman a whore, it's hard to be worse than that," Armstrong admits. "I was an idiot and in full attack mode, that's why I did it. I would have said anything."

"I couldn't be a different person off the bike, there was no getting in my way, and it worked really well for training and racing. Perfect for that. It just doesn't work well with another human being who's not in the race."

Alongside O'Reilly, Armstrong says his treatment of Filippo Simeoni was another of his biggest regrets; the Italian rider had testified against Michele Ferrari.

Armstrong had "vindictively," as Vaughters describes it, chased down Simeoni after he had got himself into the breakaway on stage 18 of the 2004 Tour de France, his punishment for spitting in the soup.

Then, once Simeoni is back in the peloton, Armstrong looks at the TV camera and motions zipping his lips. "You cannot get anymore fundamentally evil than that," Vaughters concludes.

Charles Pelkey, a former editor of VeloNews, says this should have been an embarrassing episode for Armstrong, except the American was "getting away with stuff".

"Simeoni is right up there with Emma," Armstrong concedes. "To stoop to that level, that's not what a champion does."

Armstrong went to visit Simeoni in 2013 to say sorry. The Italian said to him: "For nine years, my entire life is associated with you."

"This was a guy who was a multiple Italian champion," Armstrong explains. "He'd won some races, but everybody remembered that day because I was a f*cking asshole. It just takes those days and hearing those things to learn and be like okay, what you thought was bad was actually way worse," Armstrong says, tearing up.

No olive branch for Floyd Landis

"It could be worse, I could be Floyd Landis, waking up a piece of sh*t every day," Armstrong goes on to say.

"That's what you think?" replies Zenovich.

"That's what I know, not what I think, I know."

While Armstrong is apologetic for his treatment of O'Reilly and Simeoni, his wrath remains for Landis. His former team-mate had revealed in 2010 that both he and Armstrong had doped, rattling off emails to officials at governing bodies and anti-doping authorities telling them everything.

Years earlier, another one of Armstrong's former team-mates who had left US Postal Service in pursuit of individual glory was Tyler Hamilton. After winning the Tour de Romandie in 2004, the American had finished second in the Critérium du Dauphiné, beating Armstrong on the time trial up Mont Ventoux.

"I've heard from sources that he was pissed, and he called the UCI, this is what I was told, and he said 'you've got to get this guy'. Sure enough, they called that night.

"So I don't know, it most likely happened. If I had to guess one way or another I'd say most likely yes, he had something to do with me getting caught." These allegations are, however, not put to Lance in the documentary.

If what Hamilton says is true, there is a cognitive dissonance that remains between the rules that apply to everyone else and the rules that apply to Lance Armstrong.

"There will never be a relationship," Armstrong says of him and Landis. "Most people I'm fine to forgive and forget but there are a few I’m not there with yet."

This documentary clearly hasn't put the whole story to bed just yet.

The fire and fury inside Armstrong rages on

As the documentary reaches its end the storytelling becomes more reflective, prompting Armstrong to try and tie the narrative neatly together, an almost impossible task.

While he is insistent that he's happy to deal with any regrets, "I've told you numerous times, I wouldn't change a thing," the final sentiments on how Armstrong perceives the fickleness of who is and isn't held to account for his generation's sins as flawed.

Armstrong had been trying his best to come across a more measured, mature character over the condensed three hours of the 18 months spent filming, the Floyd Landis flare-up aside. But when the conversation turns to Jan Ullrich and the issues the German has faced over the past few years, Armstrong is unleashed, brought to tears when discussing visiting the German in 2018 before descending into a rage within a matter of seconds.

"It's just a terrible situation. Jan was in that era, that cesspool that we were all in, and he got caught, we all got caught, and the reason I went to see him is I love him," Armstrong says, then struggling to compose himself for a minute.

"Anyways, it was not a good trip. He was the most important person in my life. Nobody scared me, motivated me. The other guys... no disrespect to them, didn't get me up early. He got me up early. And he was just a f*cking mess.

"When I look at Jan's situation and I look at my situation, because they're very similar, the timing is very similar... he had all the things I had. He had a wife, children, money, and that wasn't enough to keep him together.

"And the fucking sport did it to him. And the media let him do it.

"The country of Italy glorifies Ivan Basso, idolises him, puts him up there, gives him jobs, invites him to races, puts him on TV, he's no different than any of us. Yet, they disgrace Marco Pantani, they destroy him in the press, they kick him out of the sport and he's dead. He's f*cking dead.

"The country of Germany idolises Erik Zabel, Rolf Aldag, gives them jobs, puts them on TV, invites them to races, puts them on the podium, and they disgrace and they destory and they f*cking ruin Jan Ullrich's life. Why?

"The country of America idolises, worships, glorifies George Hincapie, invites him to races, gives him jobs, buys his s*hit and they disgrace and destroy me. That's why I went [to visit Ullrich], because that's f*cking bullsh*t."

As for the last example, Armstrong had already answered an hour earlier why he is scapegoated above all.

"It might be one lie [for one rider who doped] because you answer once, or in my case it might be 10,000 lies because you've answered 10,000 times. And then you take it a step further and reinforce and go 'don't you ever ask me that f*cking question again. And then you go sue somebody and then it just... so that's why it was 100 times worst. Because we all lied."

"I don't even know where the line is anymore between good people who do bad things and bad people who do good things," says Peter Flax, former editor-in-chief of Bicycling Magazine. "There is this Shakespearian quality to the whole thing, you just have to enjoy the infinite complexity of the characters because there are no obvious bad and good guys."

The Sunday Times' David Walsh wrote in his column that Armstrong didn't like the documentary when sent a copy, and didn't show up to the premiere at the Sundance Film Festival. No matter how many articles or documentaries are written and made about Lance Armstrong, will the story ever truly be over?

The full documentary will be released on ESPN Player, with part one available from Monday, May 25 while part two will be released from June 1. 

Floyd Landis has responded after Lance Armstrong called him a “piece of s***” in a new documentary.

Landis, winner of the 2006 Tour de France before he was stripped of the yellow jersey for doping, was one of the key players in Armstrong’s downfall after he accused the Texan of doping in 2010 and later filed a whistleblower lawsuit against his former team-mate.

In 2012, Armstrong finally admitted he had doped through all of his Tour de France victories, but his animosity towards Landis has not faded even now.

Armstrong is the subject of a new ESPN documentary, which will be available online from May 25, in which he criticises Landis.

He said: “It could be worse, I could be Floyd Landis, waking up a piece of sh** every day.”

Landis, who retired in 2010 and now runs a legal cannabidiol company in Colorado has said he doesn’t feel any animosity towards Armstrong.

In an interview with ESPN radio, Landis said: “I have some empathy for him because I went through some real public humiliation and it hurts.

“You want to blame somebody and sometimes it's easier to find the most obvious thing or person and blame them. He can blame me. Maybe it would still be a secret if it wasn't for me.

“I had to come clean. He's obviously not happy about that. I hope he finds some peace in his life. I don't have any further animosity towards him."

The whistleblower lawsuit against Landis was settled in 2018, when Armstrong was ordered to pay out $5 million.

Landis received around $1.1 million from Armstrong and used the leftover money to start his own Continental team, Floyd’s Pro Cycling, which folded late last year.

But Landis still has respect for Armstrong, saying he was “the best cyclist that I’ve ever raced with.”

>>> Retired rider Jarlinson Pantano banned for four years for doping 

He added: “There's a lot more to it than just one bad guy that got a bunch of other people to dope and was kind of mean. It's complicated.

“Lance was also a kid one time and had dreams of racing his bike and didn't realise probably what he was walking into."

Lance Armstrong has revealed he first doped aged 21.

The American former professional, who is banned from the sport for life for doping, has revealed more details of his cheating in a two-part ESPN documentary, which will be available online later this month.

Armstrong, a seven-time Tour de France winner before he was stripped of all his yellow jerseys, has claimed “I’m not going to lie to you now” in the four-hour long film.

When asked how old he was the first time he doped Armstrong, who retired from racing in 2011, said: “Wow straight into that. I was probably 21.”

Armstrong says he started taking cortisones during his first professional season, 1992, the year before he won the World Championships.

But the Texan also reflected on the transition from what he calls “low-octane doping” to the use of the blood booster EPO.

He added: “We had already been dabbling in low octane cortisone, or whatever was around, but EPO was a whole other level. The performance benefits were so great that the sport went from low-octane doping, which always existed, to this high-octane rocket fuel. That was the decision we had to make.”

Armstrong said he then met and began working with Dr Michele Ferrari in the winter of 1995. He went on to win his first Tour de France in 1999 after recovering from testicular cancer.

But in 2012 he was stripped of all his Tour titles after a US Anti-Doping Agency investigation revealed the extent of his cheating.

The full documentary will be released on ESPN Player, with part one available from Monday, May 25 while part two will be released from June 1. The programme centres around extensive interviews with Armstrong, a number of former team-mates, including George Hincapie, as well as friends, rivals and journalists.

In the trailer, Armstrong is asked what the worst thing he’s ever done is, to which he replies: “Everybody in the world needs to get this question”.

A new Lance Armstrong documentary is set to air this month, featuring "unprecedented access" to the Texan that tells the story of his career, cancer recovery, and fall from grace after his doping was revealed.

The two-part, four-hour documentary is part of ESPN's 30 for 30 series, with part one to be available online via the ESPN Player from Monday May 25, followed by part two a week later on Monday June 1.

The programme centres around extensive interviews with Armstrong, a number of former team-mates, including George Hincapie, as well as friends, rivals and journalists.

In the trailer, Armstrong is asked what the worst thing he's ever done is, to which he replies: "Everybody in the world needs to get this question".

>>> The first cycling race since the coronavirus outbreak is next week and all 18 stages will be broadcast live

In other snippets, the now 48-year-old says "I can never be honest about this because all of this goodness will come crashing down," when discussing his extensive doping during his career, before explaining, "I needed a nuclear meltdown and I got it".

The trailer ends with Armstrong saying: "I'm not going to lie to you now, I'm going to tell you my truth."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YUsakV8RzZo

LANCE is directed by Marina Zenovich (Fantastic Lies, Robin Williams: Come Inside My Mind) and follows ESPN's successful The Last Dance series about Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls of the 1990s. The series was brought forward during the dearth of sporting action during the coronavirus lockdown.

Lance Armstrong and Johan Bruyneel have both weighed in on the 2009 feud between Armstrong and his team-mate Alberto Contador.

Both Armstrong and Contador were targeting victory in the 2009 Tour de France while riding for Astana, and after an internal power struggle the Spaniard emerged as champion, with Armstrong finishing third, five minutes back.

In a recent interview with YouTuber Valentí Sanjuan, Contador recalled the battle inside the team, which included Armstrong telling his team-mate “don’t f*** with me.”

Armstrong said in a video posted on Instagram: “There has been a little buzz in the cycling world a bout a recent interview that Alberto Contador did and I’ve been asked a lot to comment on this.

“But there really is no comment. What I will say, and I guess this is a comment, so I will say, is the best man won in 2009.”

Tension started in the opening week of the 2009 Tour, when Armstrong benefitted from a split in the peloton and usurped Contador as Astana’s best-placed rider.

Contador then attacked on stage seven to overtake Armstrong once again, with the Texan later saying the move wasn’t part of the plan, with Contador  later securing the win in the stage 18 time trial.

>>> Lance Armstrong urges riders to ‘take back power’ amid coronavirus uncertainty 

Speaking on ESPN show El Leñero Johan Bruyneel, the manager of Astana at the time, also responded to Contador’s interview, saying: “I don’t want to attack Contador, I simply want to show my version as a director.

“I was the person in charge of the team and I don’t know if it was a director criticism of me or not.

“All my decisions were in favour of Astana, not team Armstrong or team Contador team. I knew that in 95 per cent of cases our best card to play was Contador, because at that time he was the best.”

Contador, who retired in 2017, went into the race as overall favourite having won the 2007 Tour de France and the Vuelta a España and Giro d’Italia in 2008. Armstrong, at the time a seven-time Tour de France winner, had returned from a four-year retirement in 2009 with the ambition of adding to his record.

In 2012, long-standing allegations of doping by Bruyneel and Armstrong were proven true and the rider was stripped of all seven Tour de France titles, as well as the third place finish in the 2009 Tour.

Both Bruyneel and Armstrong have been banned from cycling for life.

Lance Armstrong has urged pro riders to "take back power" after their paychecks have been slashed due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.

A number of teams have reduced riders' salaries and temporarily laid off support staff as budgets tighten and their sponsors brace for the financial turmoil caused by the virus, with the suspension of the racing calendar also reducing any promotional benefit their sponsorship could reap.

"All the pro riders who are sitting at home now, who are unsure if they will receive their pay next month and if their team will survive this: this is your chance," Armstrong said on his podcast, The Move. "Now is the chance to start from scratch, get a seat at the negotiating table and take back power. If you don't seize this opportunity now, you may never get it again.

"Just think about that. Talk to each other as a platoon and unite. You are the actors in the play, and without the actors, the play is cancelled."

>>> What will happen to pro cycling? Exploring the economic landscape after coronavirus

Last month, Mitchelton-Scott's Brent Bookwalter said the current riders' union, the CPA, is not equipped to stand up for the interests of pros.

Lotto-Soudal, Bahrain-McLaren and CCC are among the team who have been forced to suspend contracts of staff and reduce riders' salaries. Meanwhile, teams that have so far escaped financial hardship have been stepping up efforts to combat the virus.

Team Ineos have been helping their sponsor deliver free hand sanitiser to NHS hospitals, with star rider Geraint Thomas also planning three 12-hour Zwift rides replicating NHS workers' shifts to raise money for the National Health Service.

In terms of the financial future of teams and riders, M2 Sports' Steve Fry believes some teams may be able to weather the storm better than others, depending on financial setup, but that if squads do fall by the wayside it will be riders further down the food chain, or that are younger and less established, that will be hit hardest.

"As is always the case, the place where it hits the hardest is further down the chain. So for those domestiques and younger riders that have maybe only have a couple of year’s experience in the WorldTour and haven’t maybe fully established themselves in terms of either being a race winner or a valued domestique, they become surplus to requirement very, very quickly, unfortunately," Fry told Cycling Weekly. "That’s just the way it goes. If teams go by the wayside it will be those guys who suffer."

A doping researcher who testified on behalf of Lance Armstrong during the US Department of Justice case has been banned from cycling for doping.

John Gleaves, an assistant professor at California State University, has accepted a four-year suspension after testing positive at the Masters Track National Championships last August.

The 36-year-old tested positive for oxandrolone metabolites, a hormone and metabolic modulator, and has had any results since the date of the test disqualified and been forced to forfeit any medals, points and prizes he collected.

Gleaves reportedly gave evidence on the widespread problem of doping in cycling in the case brought by the US Department of Justice that accused Armstrong of misusing federal funds, as the Texan's team had been sponsored by the US Postal Service and inadvertently funded his doping.

>>> We simulated Milan – San Remo 2020 on Pro Cycling Manager…so who won?

Despite potentially having to pay $100 million, Armstrong eventually settled with the US Department of Justice for $5 million.

In a blog post published shortly after Armstrong was stripped of his Tour de France victories received his lifetime ban from sport, Gleaves wrote that no-one could honestly call themselves the winner of the seven Tours de France that Armstrong had stripped from him.

"I am not apologizing for Armstrong nor do I condone cheating. But if we want to take away Armstrong's victories, we must admit that no one can honestly call themselves the winner of the seven Tour de France wins Armstrong vacates," Gleaves wrote.

"Even if one of those individuals competed dope-free, the chances are high that one or more of their teammates doped. Does that mean we erase the 1999 through 2005 Tours as if they never happened? No. Rather we should leave Armstrong with his titles, point out the institutional flaws that permitted a culture of rule-breaking, and work towards creating fair and enjoyable sport for all parties."

Lance Armstrong’s friend and former manager Johan Bruyneel has launched a new venture, as he tries to break into sports management.

Bruyneel, who has been banned from cycling for life over his involvement in doping in the Armstrong era, has now launched his own firm ‘7evenPlusTwo,’ a reference to the nine Tour de France victories he was involved in before the doping revelations emerged.

The company is a sports marketing and strategy agency, which aims to work with sporting events and individual athletes to manage details like contract negotiations, tax planning, personal brand management and event organisation.

According 7evenPlusTwo website, Bruyneel and his team will: “Manage sporting assets from large scale sporting events and their associated brands to life plans for individual athletes. Our work with teams in all sorts of sports focuses on developing winning strategies, helping to turn good teams into great team. Our strategies help individual athletes become sporting legends.

“Sport is big business, so we work with sponsors, rights owners, governments and international sporting organisations to create profitable world class sporting spectacles. We believe sport is an important part of a healthy community, so we work with organisations including city authorities and sports associations to maximise public participation in and enjoyment of sport, whether individually or through amazing mass participation events.”

In 2012 Bruyneel was initially banned from cycling for 10 years by the American Arbitration Association, but his attempt to appeal the ban resulted in the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) banning him for life in October 2018.

The CAS ruling said that between 1997 and 2007 the Belgian former pro had been “at the apex of a multitude of doping violations” and had helped and encouraged riders to dope as part of a “widespread and systematic doping program.”

During his career as a sports director and team manager, Bruyneel was involved in all seven of Armstrong's Tour victories (which he was later stripped of) and two Tour wins with Alberto Contador in 2007 and 2009 (which still stand).

In response to his lifetime ban, Bruyneel said at the time: “I want to stress that I acknowledge and fully accept that a lot of mistakes have been made in the past.

“Without going into details in this letter, I would simply like to observe that we were all children of our era, facing the pitfalls and temptations that were part of the culture at the time.”

>>> Dutch anti-doping boss says he’s ‘uncomfortable’ with use of ketones in Jumbo-Visma

He added: ““In spite of the CAS decision, it is still my goal and my wish to contribute, to help grow my sport and make it better in the years ahead.”

In his Twitter bio, Bruyneel describes himself as “Ex-procyclist. Proud ex-manager of my dear friend Lance Armstrong, winner of seven Tours de France. Anti-hypocrisy warrior.”

Armstrong was stripped of all seven of his Tour de France victories in 2012.

Has riding your bike with Lance Armstrong ever been on your bucket list?

Well the controversial figure is hosting a week-long cycling tour taking in the popular terrain of Mallorca.

But the privilege is going to cost you, with tickets currently listed online at $30,000 – around £22,000.

The event is being held to promote Armstrong’s podcast, THEMOVE, in which he and guests including his former coach Johan Bruyneel, discuss the Tour de France, other WorldTour races and endurance sport.

Armstrong’s cycling tour, called The Move Mallorca 2020, is being advertised on travel website Out There, and will include six nights and five days of riding with Armstrong and his former team-mate George Hincapie.

The rides will take in “the islands most iconic rides,” with food, accommodation, bikes and more included in the price.

There are only 12 spots available for this trip, due to take place in late September.

An advertisement for the trip says: “Lance Armstrong & George Hincapie headline 'The Move Mallorca 2020' cycling tour in late September 2020. Mallorca is a cycling paradise and the tour will feature the island’s most iconic rides. 6 nights/5 days of riding with Lance and George, all accommodations, meals, bikes and more. Only 12 cycling spots. Registration opens January 20, 2020. $30,000.

“Contact us now if interested.”

Armstrong was stripped of his record seven Tour de France titles, which he won in consecutive years between 1999-2005, and handed a lifetime ban from cycling in 2012 by the US Anti-Doping Agency, a decision that was backed up by the UCI.

In January 2013 Armstrong appeared in a televised interview with Oprah Winfrey where he admitted to doping in his career.

Following this admission, Armstrong lost endorsement deals and faced several lawsuits, losing millions of dollars.

In December 2018, Armstrong said an investment in taxi company Uber “saved his family” after the American invested $100,000 in the firm with the return from that decision estimated to be between $10-50 million.

We’ve all grown accustomed to hearing politicians grandstanding and making grandiose speeches, but a recent comment by the president of the Ukraine is likely to raise a few eyebrows.

Volodymyr Zelensky, an actor and comedian turned politician who was elected as head of state in the Ukraine earlier this year, has made an unusual comparison between his country and disgraced former pro Lance Armstrong.

Zelensky, who starred as the president of the Ukraine in his own TV comedy until he actually took on the role, made the unusual statement in a tweet where he argued the country was at a crossroads.

“Despair destroys us or makes us stronger,” Zelensky said. “Today, Ukraine is at this crossroads.

“We’re the Apple, starting in the garage. We’re Lance Armstrong, defying the odds.

“The dark times that have held us back are receding as we look to a future full of opportunities.”

The 41-year-old made the comments while discussing the first Invest in Ukraine forum, held on Tuesday (October 29), established to encourage possible partnerships between the Eastern European nation and the rest of the world.

It’s not clear from the tweet whether Zelensky’s reference to Armstrong included the seven-time Tour de France winner’s eventual fall from grace and admission of large-scale doping, which resulted in the titles being stripped from the Texan’s palmarès.

Zelensky’s words are most likely in reference to Armstrong’s testicular cancer diagnosis in 1996 and eventual return to professional racing.

Armstrong came back from cancer treatment to win seven consecutive Tours de France between 1999 and 2005, only to be stripped of the victories in 2012 after the United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) published its explosive report into Armstrong’s doping.

>>> ‘Cycling is beautiful but professional sport is another story’: Marcel Kittel on his decision to retire at 31

The following year, in an interview with Oprah Winfrey, he then admitted taking performance enhancing drugs for much of his career.

Either Zelensky’s comments were intended to be tongue in cheek, or he has quite a lot of cycling history to catch up on.

The US government is still trying to recover $1.2million from Lance Armstrong’s former manager Johan Bruyneel.

Bruyneel and Armstrong were sued by the US Justice Department for civil fraud in 2013, but Bruyneel has refused to pay according to a report from USA Today.

The US government filed a lawsuit on behalf of the US Postal Service, which sponsored Armstrong’s team from 2000 to 2004, arguing that the Armstrong and Bruyneel had defrauded the sponsor by doping.

Last year, the government reached a $5million (£4million) settlement with Armstrong.

Bruyneel has ignored the lawsuit since 2014, skipping the proceedings and refusing to accept documents from an attorney who was hired by the US to visit Bruyneel at his home in Spain last year.

A $1.2million (£970,000) default judgement was entered against Bruyneel last year, based on an estimated compensation he received through US Postal funds.

In documents filed last month in Washington D.C, the US Government said: “Spanish counsel, using a notary, attempted to personally serve Bruyneel at his residence in San Sebastián de los Reyes, Madrid, Spain with a copy of the documentation of these proceedings.

“The Spanish Notary was able to confirm that the person answering the door at the residence was Bruyneel, but Bruyneel refused to accept the documents.”

Brunyeel may be ordered to pay the money by a Spanish court, while the US government has offered him one more opportunity to fight the case against him.

The case dates back to 2010 when Armstrong’s former team-mate Floyd Landis filed a complaint as a government whistleblower, which makes him eligible to collect 10 per cent of any money the government collects from Bruyneel.

Landis used his share from the Armstrong settlement to start his own cycling team, Floyd’s Pro Cycling.

Lance Armstrong has said "it wasn't legal but I wouldn't change a thing" about his career, including the doping that saw the Texan stripped of his seven Tour de France titles.

Speaking in an interview set to air on American television next week, Armstrong says: "We did what we had to do to win. It wasn’t legal, but I wouldn’t change a thing: whether it’s losing a bunch of money, going from hero to zero."

The 30-minute interivew, titled "Lance Armstrong: Next Stage" will air on NBCSN on Wednesday May 29 where the American will talk about his career and the decisions he made as a professional cyclist.

The 47-year-old continues in the interview: "I wouldn’t change a thing. I wouldn’t change the way I acted. I mean I would, but this is a longer answer.

"Primarily, I wouldn’t change the lessons that I’ve learned. I don’t learn all the lessons if I don’t act that way. I don’t get investigated and sanctioned if I don’t act the way I acted.

"If I just doped and didn’t say a thing, none of that would have happened. None of it. I was begging for, I was asking for them to come after me. It was an easy target."

Armstrong was stripped of his record seven Tour de France titles, which he won in consecutive years between 1999-2005, and handed a lifetime ban from cycling in 2012 by the US Anti-Doping Agency, a decision that was backed up by the UCI.

In January 2013 Armstrong appeared in a televised interview with Oprah Winfrey where he admitted to doping in his career.

Following this admission, Armstrong lost endorsement deals and faced several lawsuits, losing millions of dollars.

He faced paying a part of $100 million to the US federal government, but settled for $5 million, as well as paying The Sunday Times around $1 million, Acceptance Insurance $3 million and SCA Promotions $10 million.

"Once you total up all of it, loss of guaranteed income, legal fees and settlements, it came to 111 million bucks,” Armstrong said. “I didn’t feel like I got off easy."

In December 2018, Armstrong said an investment in taxi company Uber "saved his family" after the American invested $100,000 in the firm with the return from that decision estimated to be between $10-50 million.

Lance Armstrong was paid $1.5million by the South Australian government to appear at the Tour Down Under for his 2009 comeback, it has been revealed.

The amount Armstrong was paid in taxpayer money has now been made public after a 10-year agreement to keep it secret expired.

Armstrong returned to racing at the 2009 Tour Down under after a three-season absence from the professional peloton, following his 2005 retirement.

Details of the 47-year-old’s payment, around £800,000, has been revealed by the Sunday Mail in Australia.

The deal did not include a clause about doping, according to reports, which means Armstrong did not have to repay the money when he finally admitted taking performance enhancing drugs.

>>> Cyclist talks of ‘mental scars’ after video of him being hit by car cutting corner emerges

State treasurer Rob Lucas said: “By anyone’s standards that’s an astonishing amount of money to pay one man for a six-day race, not to mention the extra sweeteners on the side.”

The agreement included first-class flights for two people, hotel accommodation and meals, according to Lucas.

He added that the contract required him to race in the Down Under Classic event, but did not obligate him to ride the TDU.

Armstrong competed in the Tour Down Under on three occasions between 2009 and 2011, first with Astana and then with Radioshack, never finishing higher than 24th overall in the event.

Then, 18 months after his final appearance at the Tour Down Under, Armstrong admitted doping for much of his professional cycling career (although claiming that he was clean while riding at the Tour Down Under), and was given a lifetime ban from the sport.

In January 2018, race director Mike Turtur said the Tour Down Under continues to benefit from the Armstrong’s appearances in 2009, 2010 and 2011.

Turtur said: “His presence, the returned benefits to the race and to this state and to awareness around cancer, money cannot buy.

“The smallest increase that we saw was 100 per cent, it was staggering, and we are still benefiting from that legacy.”

>>> Fan films himself laughing at rider injured in crash at Volta a Catalyuna 2019

Those sentiments were echoed by Leon Bignell, Australia’s Minister for Tourism and Minister for Sport, who said that Armstrong’s participation elevated the Tour Down Under’s profile to new levels, helping to reach people who would otherwise have not been interested in the event.

“Lance Armstrong’s appearance at the Santos Tour Down Under came at a time when he was considered the greatest cyclist in the world,” Bignell said.

“He brought the eyes of the world with him to South Australia when he rode in the Tour Down Under, taking the race to a whole new level. The state government has continued to leverage this exposure, ensuring crowd numbers continued to climb even after Lance’s final appearance."

Details of payments for his 2010 and 2011 appearances will be revealed when 10 years passes.

Lance Armstrong may strongly divide opinion among cycling fans, but the form US Postal rider donned his running shoes at the weekend to take on the Austin Marathon as the race’s ‘Charity Chaser’.

The concept of the charity chaser is for the chosen runner to start 22 minutes behind the rest of the field and subsequently raise money for every runner overtook in the half marathon or marathon events.

For every runner Armstrong passed, one dollar was donated to the 28 local charities who benefited from the marathon, with the overall fundraising goal the marathon set at $1 million.

>>> Bradley Wiggins: Lance Armstrong is iconic whether people like it or not

There was also a crowdfund page where people could donate to the charities Armstrong was supporting which at the time of publishing this article had raised a further $5,000.

Speaking before the start Armstrong said how he felt humbled and honoured to be asked to partake in the role by High Five Events: “When I landed yesterday it was a special feeling, I’m looking forward to running around this great city and seeing things I haven’t seen in a while.”

Armstrong came home in a highly respected chip time of 3:02:13, with his gun time of 3:24:10 placing him in an overall place of 58th out of the 2,652 finishers of the marathon, half marathon and five kilometre races.

This isn’t Armstrong’s first foray into marathon running, completing his first marathon in 2006 in New York where he claimed ‘nothing was as hard as that’.

He then set his current PB the following year at the same event where the Texan ran 2:46:43.

>>> Lance Armstrong says Uber investment 'saved his family'

Speaking to local TV station KXAN before the race, Armstrong also spoke about an upcoming ESPN 30 for 30 documentary being filmed about himself.

“The only thing I can do is give them access and be myself, be totally honest and transparent, and raw at times, I trust the series but I’m not in the editing room.” Armstrong said.

“The wounds have healed for me yeah, but that’s not important, there were a lot of people along for the ride for this story, so some have healed, for some people, they are healing and for some, they will never heal”

Lance Armstrong thanks an investment in Uber for "saving his family" when he was under fire to pay legal settlements for doping.

An investigation in 2012 showed Armstrong cheated for much of his career. He was given a lifetime ban and stripped of results, including his seven Tour de France victories.

Amstrong has now revealed an investment in the popular ride-sharing app Uber helped when facing huge legal fees and settlements.

"It's saved our family," Armstrong told CNBC of his earnings from Uber.

"It's too good to be true."

He invested $100,000 (£78,000) in the firm.

>>> Floyd Landis says cycling is not clean in post-Armstrong era 

The show host asked him how much he earned: "A ballpark… 10, 20, 30, 40, $50 million?"

Armstrong replied, "It's one of those. It's a lot. It's a lot."

Earlier this year, the 47-year-old Texan and former world champion reached a settlement in a whistle blower case that had dragged on for years.

He faced paying a part of $100 million, but settled for $5 million with the US Federal government.

The government had said he and the team defrauded taxpayers using U.S. Postal Service sponsorship money, $32.3 million from 1996 to 2004, to dope and win races.

Armstrong also settled other lawsuits over the last six years with parties including  Sunday Times (around £1m), Acceptance Insurance (part of a $3m suit), and SCA Promotions ($10m). He estimated there have been around 10 settlements so far with the whistle blower case.

"Once you total up all of it, loss of guaranteed income, legal fees and settlements, it came to 111 million bucks," Armstrong said. "I didn't feel like I got off easy."

>>> Lance Armstrong’s former manager Johan Bruyneel banned from cycling for life 

Prior to his 2009 comeback and before he admitted to doping, he made an investment in a venture capital fund involving Uber.

"[Chris Sacca] left to start his own venture capital fund called Lowercase Capital and he called me and said, 'Looking for investors. Would you invest?'" Armstrong said.

"So I invested in Chris Sacca. I didn't even know that he did Uber. I thought he was buying up a bunch of Twitter shares from employees or former employees and the biggest investment in Lowercase was Uber."

Armstrong also spoke about his career and the aftermath of the doping case that showed he used EPO, testosterone and blood transfusions starting in the mid-1990s.

During the case and after he admitted to cheating, sponsors dropped their contracts with him. He criticised Nike's "double standard" when compared to golfer Tiger Woods and baseball player Alex Rodriguez.

"I do think there's a double standard. But I'm okay with it," he explained. A-Rod [Rodriguez] didn't raise half a billion dollars and try to save a bunch of people's lives. I mean, that's kind of the irony in this. But, A-Rod was a baseball player."

Rodriguez sat out a year for steroid use. Woods did not play while infidelity scandals and domestic problems hit the headlines. Armstrong received a lifetime ban, unlike them, and said it was Nike's reason to pull its support.

"If what happened to Tiger the next day, they said, 'Hey, buddy. I'm sorry, but we're taking all the golf clubs. You can never hit a ball every again on TV, in a tournament, ever,'" added Armstrong. "[Nike] would not have stood by him. I promise you."

Floyd Landis has challenged US president Donald Trump’s administration through his Lance Armstrong lawsuit settlement.

Landis, a stripped Tour de France winner, has challenged the legitimacy of the acting US attorney general, Matthew Whitaker.

While most of the Landis-Armstrong lawsuit was settled earlier this year, part of the case remained open when Whitaker was appointed in early November.

The Justice Department under Whitaker needed to approve part of the agreement, but Landis is now using the case to question the validity of the appointment, according to USA Today.

Landis’ attorney, Paul Scott, said: “Though this motion may potentially go against his financial interests, Floyd is basically just trying to do the right thing here.

“The legitimacy of the [attorney general] happened to present itself in his case, so he decided to take a stand on the issue."

>>> ‘At least something positive can come out of the last 12 years’: The unexpected return of Floyd Landis

On November 7, Donald Trump announced that Whitaker would replace attorney general Jeff Sessions who was pushed out by the president.

Whitaker’s appointment has proved controversial, with senior US figures opposing his acting position as attorney general .

Landis, a confessed doper who was stripped of his 2006 Tour de France victory, argues that Whitaker is not a legitimate acting head of the US Justice Department because the Senate did not approve his appointment.

On Monday, Landis asked the US Court of Appeals for the District of Colombia Circuit to rule Whitaker’s role as invalid.

Landis, Armstrong's former team-mate, is adding to his legal costs and throws into jeopardy an additional $122,870 (£95,000) he was awarded last week for his role in the Armstrong lawsuit, according to USA Today.

>>> Floyd Landis says cycling is not clean in post-Armstrong era

As part of the most recent deal, Landis agreed to drop an appeal over a case involving damages from Armstrong’s former manager Johan Bruyneel and Tailwind Sports, the parent company of Armstrong’s team.

In 2010, Landis filed a whistleblower lawsuit against Armstrong, claiming the disgraced seven-time Tour de France winner had defrauded the US government by doping while riding for the US Postal Service team.

Earlier this year, Armstrong agreed to pay out $5million (£3.8million) in a settlement, with Landis due to receive around $750,000 (£576,150) as the person who raised the case.

Landis had also attempted to reclaim damages from Bruyneel and Tailwind, but that rejected, so Landis appealed.

When Landis dropped the appeal, the Justice Department agreed to pay out up to $122,000 but that money could now come into question due to Landis’ legal challenge against Whitaker’s appointment.

Geraint Thomas says Bradley Wiggins' recent comments in praise of Lance Armstrong are purely for publicity of his new book.

Wiggins, winner of the 2012 Tour de France, has said in interviews and written in his new book, Icons, supportive comments of Armstrong, who was stripped of his seven Tour titles after it was revealed he and his team systematically doped through each victory.

“I’m not saying he’s an icon," Wiggins said in an interview with TalkSport in October.

“Whether people like it or not he’s iconic in some way, good or bad.

“For me, I can’t change the way he made me feel when I was 13. It changed my life.”

In his book, Wiggins - who retired at the end of 2016 - wrote that Armstrong was a "perfect" Tour de France winner.

Thomas, who rode with Wiggins at Team Sky from 2010 until 2015, was asked about the comments while he was in China, riding the ASO organised Shanghai Criterium. The 32-year-old said it was easy for Wiggins to say such things now he is retired and away from competition and regular interviews with journalists.

"Brad's got a book to sell," Thomas said to AFP.

"He doesn't have to worry about anything, either. He doesn't have to race his bike and deal with journalists.

"He can just say what he wants and do any interview he wants so he can say something like that and get a load of publicity."

UCI president David Lappartient has also criticised Wiggins' comments on Armstrong, saying he found the "strange" and unbelievable, adding: "“In supporting Lance Armstrong who’s been banned for life for cheating, for me this isn’t acceptable."

In the same interview in Shanghai, Thomas also said he would be targetting a second Tour de France victory in 2019, riding alongside four-time winner Chris Froome. The Welshman acknowledged how difficult defending his title would be though.

"If you look in the history books, the last man to retain it after winning it for the first time was (Miguel) Indurain, back in 1991-92," said Thomas.

"So it kind of shows how rare that is."

The president of the UCI has called Sir Bradley Wiggins’ views on Lance Armstrong “strange” and “unbelievable.”

In Wiggins’ new book Icons, the first British Tour de France winner said the American was “precisely the sort of winner” the race founder had imagined.

Armstrong, who has publicly admitted doping, is banned from cycling for life and was stripped of his seven Tour de France victories.

UCI president David Lappartient, speaking at the Rouleur Classic show in London, criticised Wiggins’ words.

Lappartient told The Telegraph: “I thought it unbelievable.”

“In supporting Lance Armstrong who’s been banned for life for cheating, for me this isn’t acceptable.

“Bradley Wiggins is Bradley Wiggins. He always says some strange things.”

In his new book Icons, Wiggins writes: “Legend has it that Henri Desgrange, the father of the Tour, envisaged a ‘perfect winner.’

“The ideal Tour de France would have one finisher, a type of super-athlete who would not only defeat his opponents but also whatever nature might throw at him.”

Wiggins writes that Armstrong was “the archetypal Tour de France cyclist and he was precisely the sort of winner Desgrange had in mind 120 years ago.”

In his new book, published last week, Wiggins reveals key pieces from his personal collection of cycling memorabilia and explores some of cycling’s greatest and most controversial figures.

The 38-year-old also writes about his first meeting with Armstrong in a bike race, when the Texan rode alongside him and spoke to the Brit.

His Armstrong comments echo a recent radio interview, when Wiggins said Armstrong is iconic “whether people like it or not.”

In that interview, Wiggins revealed how he had looked up to Armstrong as a young rider.

Power meters should not be banned from the Tour de France but data should be made public, according to Lance Armstrong.

The stripped seven-time Tour winner weighed in on the power meter debate after race director Christian Prudhomme said he wanted the technology banned.

Speaking on his podcast THEMOVE, Armstrong discussed the issue with his former directeur sportif Johan Bruyneel.

Armstrong said: “Some of these [Tour de France] stages are so f*cking boring. And you saw this year we have some really long stages.

“As opposed to taking away these power meters, how about we make that public.

“Make race radio public, power meters public, so we see in these long boring days you at least get to see some watts, some heart rates.

“At some point you have to say 'how valuable is this content?'

“I think it’s very valuable and I think it’s worth it for the guys to just say ‘we’re all going to do it. We’re all going to share and give that to the fans.’”

>>>  Tour de France 2019 route revealed: Five summit finishes to celebrate 100th anniversary of the yellow jersey

Last week, the 2019 Tour de France route was unveiled in Paris.

During the presentation, race director Christian Prudhomme said he wants to ban power meters from the Tour saying the technology “annihilates the glorious uncertainty of the sport."

According to some, power meters negatively impact racing as pros measure their attacks and steadily chase down those racing on instinct.

The controversy over power meters has rolled on in recent years, in part due to the Grand Tour dominance of Team Sky.

Armstrong’s former manager Johan Bruyneel also weighed in.

Speaking on Armstrong’s podcast, Bruyneel said: “I think it’s ridiculous.

“Even if they do [ban power meters] it’s not going to change anything.

“These guys know exactly how far they can go. They’re not going to ban heart rate monitors.

“If the rider knows his limits, even without the monitor they all know perfectly how far they can go.”

Bruyneel was recently banned from cycling for life for his role in the systematic doping at the US Postal Service team in the early 2000s.

Lance Armstrong was the “perfect” Tour de France winner, says Sir Bradley Wiggins in his new book.

The first ever British Tour winner Wiggins says that disgraced American Armstrong was “precisely the sort of winner” the race founder had pictured, the Sunday Times reports.

Armstrong was stripped of all seven of his Tour de France victories and has publicly admitted to doping to win each of those races.

>>> Floyd Landis says cycling is not clean in post-Armstrong era

In his new book Icons, Wiggins writes: “Legend has it that Henri Desgrange, the father of the Tour, envisaged a ‘perfect winner.’

“The ideal Tour de France would have one finisher, a type of super-athlete who would not only defeat his opponents but also whatever nature might throw at him.”

Wiggins writes that Armstrong was “the archetypal Tour de France cyclist and he was precisely the sort of winner Desgrange had in mind 120 years ago.”

In his new book, due to be published on Thursday, Wiggins reveals key pieces from his personal collection of cycling memorabilia and explores some of cycling’s greatest and most controversial figures.

The 38-year-old also writes about his first meeting with Armstrong in a bike race, when the Texan rode alongside him and spoke to the Brit.

Wiggins said: “I felt 10ft tall because…well, because he was Lance Armstrong.

"Am I allowed to say that, or does it make me some sort of cycling heretic?”

His Armstrong comments echo a recent radio interview, when Wiggins said Armstrong is iconic “whether people like it or not.”

In that interview, Wiggins revealed how he had looked up to Armstrong as a young rider.

In the book, Wiggins also says he and his wife Cath have struggled with fame and recent media coverage.

Wiggins was at the centre of a media storm in recent years after hackers revealed the Brit had obtained a therapeutic use exemption for a powerful corticosteroid before he raced in Grand Tours.

A parliamentary report published earlier this year said that Team Sky “crossed an ethical line” over Wiggins’ use of triamcinolone, but Sky refuted the findings.

Sir Bradley Wiggins said he believes Lance Armstrong is iconic whether people like it or not.

The 2012 Tour winner Wiggins added that he still speaks to Armstrong and has been in contact in recent weeks.

Speaking with talkSPORT radio host Jim White, Wiggins remembers watching Armstrong win the World Championships in 1993 and being inspired to ride his bike.

>>> Floyd Landis plans to start professional cycling team

The first British Tour de France in history said: “I’m not saying he’s an icon.

“Whether people like it or not he’s iconic in some way, good or bad.

"For me, I can’t change the way he made me feel when I was 13. It changed my life.”

Armstrong’s name continues to resound in the cycling world, even now six years after he was stripped of all of his seven Tour de France titles and banned from the sport for life.

The Texan won each of the Tours de France between 1999 and 2005 before retiring.

He returned to the sport in 2009.

In 2011 Armstrong retired for the last time, saying he wanted to dedicate more time to his family and the fight against cancer.

A year later, Armstrong was stripped of the Tour wins.

In 2013, Armstrong finally confessed to taking banned substances during each of his Tour wins.

Armstrong is now is podcaster, competes in triathlons and owns a bike shop in his home town of Austin, Texas.

World hour record holder Wiggins said he still speaks with Armstrong.

He said: “I know him as a person post-cycling. post what he’s been through.

“I think so much goes on in the world and so many bad things, Lance has paid the price heavily for what he’s done.

“Okay the sport has suffered but he wasn’t alone in that.”

Lance Armstrong's former manager Johan Bruyneel must pay back $1.2 million of sponsorship money to the US government after an investigation revealed doping and cheating.

Bruyneel and Armstrong were part of the US Justice Department's False Claims Act started by former team-mate and whistleblower Floyd Landis. Landis revealed how taxpayers were cheated via the US Postal Service's sponsorship of Armstrong's team through 2004.

Armstrong won the Tour de France seven consecutive times, titles that were stripped after a 2012 ruling by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA).

The whistleblower case ran on for five years. Armstrong in April agreed to pay $6.65 million to settle with the government – $2.75 million went to Landis under federal government whistleblower rules. The remaining 3.9 million goes to the government.

Former Belgian cyclist and manager Johan Bruyneel is on the hook for $1.2 million, a federal judge ordered on Wednesday. He must also pay an additional $369,000 in civil penalties, which could be avoided given he is a foreign citizen living overseas.

The 54-year-old has been living for some time in London.

"This ruling marks the finish line of a lawsuit brought by Floyd Landis and the federal government to recover money paid by the US Postal Service to sponsor a professional cycling team featuring Lance Armstrong," US District Judge Christopher Cooper wrote.

Armstrong admitted to doping in 2013. In the USADA's Reasoned Decision, he was shown to doped with testosterone, EPO and blood transfusions from 1999 to 2005 when he won his seven titles.

His former team-mates testified against him. They confirmed his doping regime and his influence over the USPS and Discovery Channel teams and his encouragement of the others to follow his banned practices.

US Postal Service gave $32.3 million to sponsor Bruyneel and Armstrong's team from 2000 to 2004. The False Claims Act allowed the government to seek triple the amount, nearly $100 million, but 46-year-old Armstrong settled for much less.

Bruyneel "directed and facilitated" the doping scheme with the US Postal Service team. The judge wrote that he was paid $2,047,833 in salary and bonuses when USPS sponsored the team. It showed that USPS financed 60 per cent of the management company Tailwind's expenses, around 60 per cent of Bruyneel's salary.

"[We are] very pleased with the precedent set by this case, which resulted in a doping athlete being held responsible to a sponsor for millions of dollars," Landis' attorney Paul Scott, told USA Today Sports.

"That result sends a simple and clear message to others contemplating the same conduct. Doping and cheating may get you ahead of the pack temporarily, but sooner or later justice will catch up."

Lance Armstrong is not welcome to podcast at the 2018 Giro d'Italia after a career of doping and a lifetime ban, says race organiser RCS Sport.

Armstrong announced days after settling a €100-million US Federal court case for $5 million that he plans on recording his podcast on location at the Giro d'Italia and Tour of California in May.

"Lance Armstrong has not been invited by the organiser of the Giro d'Italia," RCS Sport's director Paolo Bellino told La Gazzetta dello Sport.

"He is disqualified for life by the UCI and therefore cannot have roles in UCI events."

Armstrong posted daily podcasts for the 2017 Tour de France from various spots in the US. However, pressure saw the Colorado Classic organiser cut a planned deal with him for its event in 2017. He continued, however, and recorded podcasts related to the event from a local wine bar.

>>> Even now Lance Armstrong is still working miracles

The Texan, now 46, said that he plans on going to Israel for the first three stages of the Giro d'Italia.

"He cannot receive an accreditation from the organisation," Bellino added.

"That's how it is, and in fact, for cycling, he no longer exists. He is no longer part of our world."

He could record his show from anywhere around the race, but not in official areas. As RCS Sport noted in a statement on Monday evening: "Anyone can watch a bike race from the roadside, outside of the official areas."

In 2012, officials banned Armstrong for life after the US Anti-Doping Agency's Reasoned Decision. It showed he encouraged his team-mates' drug use, helped them cover it up and used blood transfusions, EPO and testosterone. As part of the ban, he was stripped of his results including his seven Tour de France titles from 1999 to 2005.

It is not clear yet if Armstrong would travel to Italy where the remainder of the 2018 Giro d'Italia will unfold. He also has plans to cover the Tour of California, from May 13 to 19.

"The chance to go Israel to cover an iconic event like the Tour of Italy is insane," Armstrong said. "The Grand Tours like the Tour de France start in Holland, Belgium or Germany, but to go far from mainland Europe is pretty awesome and a unique opportunity."

>>> Lance Armstrong pulls out of controversial Tour of Flanders appearance just three days ahead of event

Armstrong's position could change. He had talked of his enthusiasm to speak at the Tour of Flanders Business Academy ahead of the Belgian Monument last month.

However, a few days before the event he pulled out citing personal reasons. On the day he was due to speak, he posted a long bicycle ride on Strava and took a helicopter ride with a friend.

The Tour of Flanders organiser came under pressure from every corner, including the UCI President David Lappartient. The same pressure saw the Colorado Classic organiser cancel its deal with Armstrong.

“I’m sorry you don’t believe in miracles,” was the ever-combative Lance Armstrong’s riposte to his critics from the top step of the Tour de France podium in 2005. And since the US Anti-Doping Authority’s reasoned decision finding him guilty of one of sport’s biggest doping conspiracies in 2012 and Armstrong’s subsequent confession to Oprah Winfrey in January 2013, it has been easy to poke fun at that statement as the “miracles” of his seven Tour wins have been exposed as mere smoke, mirrors and blood bags.

But in the light of yesterday’s settlement of the final legal case against him for $5m it bears re-examining.

Armstrong had stood to lose up to $100m in the lawsuit started by former team-mate and long-time adversary Floyd Landis in 2010 and joined by the US government in 2013. They sought damages for the sponsorship money from the US Postal Service for the team between 2000 and 2004 and under a quirk of US law that could have been three times the $32.3m that it gave the team.

Reading the court documents it’s not difficult to see why the US government decided to settle for what seems like fairly paltry sum.

That side was finding it difficult to prove US Postal had actually been harmed by its association with Armstrong, not helped by its own marketing report that said “the total value of the earned media derived from the sponsorship was approximately $103.5 million from 2001 to 2004”. A fact that prompted even the judge in the case Cristopher Cooper to note in a summary judgment last year: “Armstrong makes a persuasive case that USPS received substantial value from the positive media coverage of the team”

According to the court documents Armstrong was paid $13.4m from the US Postal sponsorship contract, and yesterday’s settlement combined with other undisclosed ones he has made to insurance companies and The Times comes to around $20m.

Given that prior to his confession he was estimated to have a net worth of $125m, its difficult to argue he has not profited, massively, from his drug enhanced sporting achievements, that is perhaps the miracle he was referring to.

Has he been punished enough? Probably not as the fortune he amassed is still substantial and considerably more than he would have made as an average rider in the peloton at the time. Most importantly that sends a bad message to younger riders. But that is not Armstrong’s fault as much as it is the weakness of the legal and anti-doping systems in place.

That said, in the courts, as it was in his professional career, Armstrong has found himself protected, inadvertently perhaps, by the fact that his success served to benefit many people. The conclusion to his saga is not terribly satisfying but on the plus side there remain some miracles that we can still believe in.

Lance Armstrong has avoided a possible $100m payout in damages to the US government after settling a whistleblower lawsuit before it was due to go to court.

Armstrong reached a $5m settlement with the US federal government in a deal announced on Thursday, with both sides preparing to go to court in Washington on May 7.

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The lawsuit, which was originally filed by Armstrong's former US Postal team-mate Floyd Landis in 2010, saw the government attempting to reclaim the millions of dollars it had spent supporting the team during six of Armstrong's seven Tour de France titles.

The team, which was sponsored by the Postal Service in Armstrong's maiden Tour win in 1999, increased it's sponsorship from 2000 to 2004, paying around $32m to the team in that time, of which Armstrong received $13.5m according to court documents seen by the Associated Press.

The government joined the lawsuit set in motion by Landis in 2013 after Armstrong confessed to doping throughout all seven of his Tour wins, which had been stripped by the UCI following the reasoned decision of the US Anti-Doping Agency based on the testimony of Armstrong's former team-mates.

Landis, who himself lost a Tour de France title in 2006 after failing a doping control, set the lawsuit in motion against Armstrong in 2010 under the False Claims Act, claiming that the Texan had defrauded the government out of money by cheating to win bike races.

With the government able to sue for treble of what they paid out in damages, Landis is set for a 25 per cent windfall having been the initial whistleblower for the case.

“The Postal Service and Landis had sought $100 million in damages from Lance, but in light of several significant court rulings rejecting and limiting the plaintiffs’ damages theories, the case today settled for $5 million, plus an additional amount to pay attorneys’ fees to Landis’ lawyer,” said Elliot Peters of Keker Van Nest & Peters, LLP, counsel for Armstrong. “Lance is delighted to put this behind him.”

In a statement, the 46-year-old maintained the lawsuit as baseless, and said that the memories of riding with the US Postal team "still mean a lot" to him.

“While I believe that their lawsuit against me was meritless and unfair, and while I am spending a lot of money to resolve it, I have since 2013 tried to take full responsibility for my mistakes and inappropriate conduct, and make amends wherever possible,” Armstrong said.

“I rode my heart out for the Postal cycling team, and was always especially proud to wear the red, white and blue eagle on my chest when competing in the Tour de France. Those memories are very real and mean a lot to me."

Armstrong received a life-ban from cycling (as well as other sports which was partially lifted in 2016) when the reasoned decision was issued, and has since faced a number of lawsuits and settlements that have cost him a reported $20m.

Major sponsors dropped him in the wake of his confession, including major long-term deals with Nike, Trek Bicycles and Oakley. Armstrong also stepped down as a chairman of his cancer charity Livestrong which he began after recovering from life-threatening testicular cancer in the 1990s.

He is still believed to have a fortune worth millions thanks to property investment, and owns two bike shops as well as the endurance sports company Wedu. Armstrong also made a return to cycling with his Stages podcast in 2017, discussing each day of the Tour de France with a co-host and has continued to produce it for various races in the 2018 season.

“I am glad to resolve this case and move forward with my life,” Armstrong said on the resolution of the lawsuit.

“I’m looking forward to devoting myself to the many great things in my life — my five kids, my wife, my podcast, several exciting writing and film projects, my work as a cancer survivor, and my passion for sports and competition. There is a lot to look forward to.”

Lance Armstrong's former team manager Johann Bruyneel has spoken in defence of Armstrong and their former US Postal team, saying that the team "did not invent the system" and that it was too easy to blame Armstrong for cycling's problems.

Speaking to Belgian newspaper Het Nieuwsblad, Bruyneel, who worked with Armstrong at US Postal, Astana, and Radioshack, declined to comment on the $100m lawsuit that Armstrong is facing from the US Department of Justice over allegations that he defrauded the US government by using US Postal sponsorship money to fund a doping programme, but said that he and the team were not responsible for cycling's historic drug problem.

>>> Lance Armstrong pulls out of controversial Tour of Flanders appearance just three days ahead of event

"I still can't say everything about the case because it is still running but I do know that Lance and our team did not invent the system, it did not start with us and it did not end with us," Bruyneel said.

"It is easy to blame Lance and the team for everything that went wrong in cycling but I'm sorry, I do not agree with that."

The Belgian former rider and team manager, who is currently serving a 10-year ban for his involvement in the systematic doping regime run at the US Postal team also reaffirmed his belief that Armstrong should be regarded as the winner of seven Tours de France between 1999 and 2005.

"Who else won [other than Armstrong]?" he continued. "There is so much hypocrisy. [Bjarne] Riis won the 1996 Tour, admitted he doped, but he can still keep his title. It's ASO who determines who can keep their wins, and who cannot.

"For seven years we raced 3500km, suffered for three weeks and after all that nobody won the race. No winner in all those years, that says enough to me."

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Bruyneel also had strong words for former riders Dave Zabriskie and Floyd Landis, describing Zabriskie's testimony as "utter bulls***" and saying that talking about either man makes his "blood start to boil." However he did show some reticence about some of his past actions

"I do not want to call it intimidation but instead arrogance, which I took part in and that was completely wrong," he continued. "We made a lot of enemies, that's a fact. I'm sorry and I can't undo that. We were in a trance, the focus was solely on results. I'm now embarrassed about how I behaved."

After months of controversy surrounding his appearance at an event connected to the Tour of Flanders, Lance Armstrong has now pulled out of a planned speaking engagement due to "a very serious family and personal matter".

Armstrong had been scheduled to attend the Tour of Flanders Business Academy, a VIP event which sees participants pay €295 (£260) to ride the final 74km of the Tour of Flanders followed by a lunch and speech, on Friday, but will now be replaced by Belgium football manager Roberto Martinez.

"It is with great sadness and regret that, due to a very serious family and personal matter, I cannot attend this year's Tour of Flanders," Armstrong said in a press release from Tour of Flanders organiser Flanders Classics.

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"Without going into too much detail, and out of respect for my family’s privacy, I must stay close to my home here in Texas to deal with the situation.

"I’m very happy that [Flanders Classics owner] Wouter Vandenhaute was able to find a great speaker for the Tour of Flanders Business Academy event in Roberto Martinez, the coach of the Belgian football team. I’m sure he has a very interesting story to tell and have been told he’s a great fan of cycling."

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Armstrong is banned for life from taking part in professional cycling events, but this ban does not cover seperate events such as the Tour of Flanders Business Academy. However despite the event not being covered by Armstrong's ban, his attendance at an event linked to the race has been criticised by many in cycling.

In January UCI president David Lappartient said that it "would not be a good idea" for Armstrong to speak at the event and even threatening to boycott the race, with the American also reportedly planning to ride the Flanders sportive event on the Saturday before the professional race, and perhaps even travel in a VIP car on the day of the race itself.

However had he have attended then Armstrong would have been far from alone in being a former drug cheat working close to a cycling race, with Richard Virenque working on French television and attending the Tour de France as a special guest each year and Alexandre Vinokourov being at the head of the Astana team.