How Uber gave Armstrong ride of his life after doping disgrace
There was a time when Lance Armstrong’s downfall in cycling was going to not only equal a lifetime of shame but also financial hardship.
Faced with lawsuits seeking tens of millions of dollars in damages for his fraudulent life as a doping cheat — and an aggressively litigious pursuer of anyone who suggested otherwise — Armstrong was in strife.
But in his first US television interview since sitting down with Oprah Winfrey in 2013, the cancer survivor who captured the imagination of the world while winning seven Tours de France, then having them stripped in the biggest doping scandal in history, has revealed he’s more than landed on his feet.
Now 47, Armstrong reached a US$5 million settlement with the US Federal Government in April when they could have sought up to $100m if the suit went to trial. But that doesn’t come close to the windfall he appears to have made on an early investment in Uber.
The Texas native invested $100,000 with a venture capital firm in 2009, the bulk of which went to the ride-sharing app that was valued at just $3.7 million at the time.
Alex Rodriguez didn’t raise half a billion dollars and try to save people’s lives. Lance Armstrong
Today, as the company prepares for its IPO, banks have valued it as high as $120 billion.
Armstrong declined to say exactly how much that made his share worth but told CNBC the number is “too good to be true” and “it’s saved our family”.
Armstrong’s bonanza was a giant stroke of luck.
“I didn’t even know that he [investor Chris Sacca] did Uber,” Armstrong said.
“I thought he was buying up a bunch of Twitter shares from employees or former employees, and the biggest investment in [the] Lowercase fund one was Uber.”
Armstrong has a pretty solid spot in the pantheon of most hated sports figures but he didn’t sound thrilled with that — or his company.
The former cyclist isn’t quite embracing his place in sports lore.
“I do think there’s a double standard,” he said. “But I’m okay with it.”
After his 2013 confession to Oprah Winfrey, Armstrong received a strong amount of backlash, with a healthy amount of anger towards him lingering to this day.
Banned from cycling for life in 2012, Armstrong invoked another famous cheat in Alex Rodriguez, the former New York Yankees baseball superstar who received a one-year ban for his role in Biogenesis, but has been able to reclaim a positive spot in the public eye years later.
It’s a luxury Armstrong hasn’t been afforded, despite his Livestrong brand’s work for cancer research.
“Alex Rodriguez didn’t raise half a billion dollars and try to save a bunch of people’s lives,” Armstrong said.
“That’s kind of the irony of this. Look, it’s great when somebody hits home runs and maybe does an event here and there for the Girls and Boys Club. This story held a place in people’s hearts and minds that was way beyond those guys.”