Cycling chief wants Lance to stay away
New world cycling boss David Lappartient wants Lance Armstrong to stay away from the sport completely, saying he does not trust him.
The UCI president also said the sport was cleaner and moving on from the Armstrong era, despite the current investigation into fourtime Tour de France champion Chris Froome.
Armstrong is serving a life ban and was stripped of his seven Tour de France titles after he admitted to doping.
But he remains a prominent and polarising figure in the sport.
The American has been invited to an event associated with this year’s Tour of Flanders, one of the biggest road races on the calendar.
That prompted Lappartient to write to the event organisers, reminding them that he cannot attend the race itself.
‘‘My point of view . . . is I don’t think this is good publicity for cycling, but that’s up to [the race] to decide,’’ he said.
‘‘We want to show a clean sport and Armstrong is not the symbol of the clean sport. I remember the time he was trying to demonstrate that he was a clean athlete, so I don’t really trust this guy.’’
Bjarne Riis, another former Tour de France winner who has confessed to doping, is attending Adelaide’s Tour Down Under.
Lappartient said Riis’ situation was different because he had confessed before 2011, when a rule was introduced setting out the condition where known dopers could be involved in cycling.
Armstrong confessed on live TV in early 2013.
Lappartient, who is also in Adelaide to attend the Tour Down Under, said it would be preferable if Froome did not compete while his investigation continues.
Froome is preparing an explanation for why one of his urine tests at the Tour of Spain last September allegedly showed a high reading for salbutamol.
Lappartient said because Froome’s Team Sky was not a member of the MPCC body, the star could not be compelled to step down from racing.
‘‘I hope for him, I hope for our sport that he’s not guilty, that it was an accident,’’ he said. ‘‘But I think it’s best not to ride [compete] until the end of the process.’’
Lappartient hopes the investigation is resolved soon.
But asked if the situation could be unresolved at the July Tour de France, Lappartient said that was ‘‘not impossible’’.
‘‘Chris Froome has the right to explain his point of view, to defend his position,’’ he said.
‘‘But it’s bad for the image of cycling, because this is the most famous athlete in our sport.’’
Lappartient added that despite the Froome controversy, cycling was now cleaner.
Meanwhile, Australian Richie Porte has conceded the Tour Down Under title to South African Daryl Impey. Porte, the defending champion, says Impey and his Australian team Mitchelton-Scott will be too strong to overcome.
Impey and Porte are tied for the the anti-asthma drug overall lead after yesterday’s dramatic fifth stage at Willunga, south of Adelaide.
Impey has the lead thanks to a countback of earlier stage results this week.
Porte (BMC) won the Willunga stage for the fifth year in a row, while Impey was a surprise second across the line.
The Australian was aiming to become the first champion in the Tour’s 20-year history to defend his title.
It initially looked like today’s last stage would be a titanic battle between Impey and Porte.
But provided nothing goes wrong in the Adelaide street race, Porte said Impey would win the Tour for the first time.
‘‘Look, Daryl’s quick; he’s been second twice in the stages here,’’ Porte said.
‘‘Realistically, I don’t have a chance to move up because, if I start going, Caleb Ewan [Impey’s team-mate] and guys like this are going to start going for the intermediates, too.’’ - AAP
1 Daryl Impey, 2 Richie Porte, 3 Tom-Jelte Slagter, 4 Diego Ulissi, 5 Dries Devenyns, 6 Egan Bernal, 7 Gorka Izagirre st, 8 Robert Gesink, 9 George Bennett, 10 Ion Izagirre.