Lemond says Lance Armstrong admitted using EPO

June 3rd, 2010 by Ron Callahan View Comments

(c) Ron Callahan

In an interview with USA Today‘s Sal Ruibal, Greg Lemond says that he feels “vindicated” by Floy Landis’ doping accusations and even goes on to say that Lance Armstrong told him that he used EPO.

“It seems almost crazy to dare say that Armstrong admitted he used EPO, but he did call me in 2001 and admitted that he used EPO. That was his way of saying, ‘Everybody does EPO, your (1989) win was a miracle just like mine was.’”

After the strange and bizarre encounter between Lemond and Landis during Landis’ 2007 doping trial, the two are strange bedfellows. Of course, Lemond still has many bones to pick with Lance Armstrong after a protracted legal battle over the Lemond Bicycles brand with the Trek Bicycle Company, whom Lemond alleged ignored his brand in favor of promoting Armstrong.

Lemond adds:

“I hope all of this sheds light on all the corporate enabling that went on, especially the one that tried to take my brand away from me. This is all about bullying and threatening those who dared to challenge the story. But to really change, there needs to be a cleansing from the top down. Just punishing riders won’t fix it. The teams, the corporations that sponsor them and the organizations that govern the sport all have to take responsibility. Right now it is a corrupt system.”

The article goes on to talk about Lemond’s recovery from lead poisoning after being accidentally shot by his brother-in-law in 1987. Do I need to add that one of the long term effects of lead poisoning is memory loss?

Tags: doping, EPO, Greg Lemond, Lance, Lance Armstrong, trek, USA Today

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# 4 June 2010 at 12:06 am

admin (author) said:

No doubt, there is a growing number of people who have cast doubts on Armstrong’s claims of being clean. Most seem to have an ax to grind, however.

# 4 June 2010 at 11:03 am

admin (author) said:

I’m not trying to gauge Lemond’s mental fitness, by any means.

Lemond definitely won the battle with Trek. Everyone made it sound like it was a nice, congenial out of court settlement, but I feel that there was more behind it than what we were told.

# 4 June 2010 at 12:41 pm

StumpyRider said:

“Do I need to add that one of the long term effects of lead poisoning is memory loss?” Only if you're petrified of the notion that what GL is saying could actually be true.

Lemond, Landis, Vaughters, Ashenden, Andreu, McIlvain, O'Reilly, Swart. They can' t ALL be wrong, can they?

# 4 June 2010 at 2:49 pm

VeloCast said:

Could you clarify exactly what you're implying with your “memory loss” rhetorical question?
That Lemond's just nuts so his comments should be ignored?
If however we're just talking throwaway innuendo, I found it interesting that the Trek case settlement involved Trek paying cash to Lemond's chosen charity and clearly did not involve a gagging order on Greg. Which would make him the winner of that case……….

# 4 June 2010 at 4:28 pm