‘Without dope Armstrong is top 30 at best’ says LeMond

Cycling

Wednesday 23 OctOber 2013 GREG LeMond believes Lance Armstrong was capable of a top30 finish at best in the Tour de France with a level playing field.

LeMond is now the only American winner of the yellow jersey after Armstrong was stripped of seven titles for doping. The 1986, 1989 and 1990 champion has long been one of Armstrong’s fiercest critics and, in an interview with CNN’s Anderson Cooper, he said: “I know his physical capabilities, he’s a top-30 [Tour finisher] at best no matter what.

“If he’s clean, everybody’s clean, he’s a top 30 at best. He’s not capable of winning the Tour, he’s not capable of the top five.”

LeMond also stressed his belief that Armstrong – banned for life following a United States Anti-Doping Agency investigation which uncovered the doping practices of the United States Postal Service team led by the Texan – should be imprisoned.

Armstrong, who finished first in the Tour from 1999 to 2005, is currently embroiled in a series of legal battles.

LeMond added: “There are people who are criminals who just shouldn’t be able to participate again in anything.”

The full route for the 2014 Tour de France, which begins in Yorkshire, will be announced in Paris today with defending champion Chris Froome bracing himself for a bumpy ride.

Froome followed first British winner Sir Bradley Wiggins, the 2012 champion, into the yellow jersey in July with a peerless climbing performance and three stage wins. The 28-year-old Kenya-born Team Sky rider is sure to start as favourite, but he is concerned about the rumours that the Tour will return to the cobbles used for the famous Paris-Roubaix one-day classic.

The 2010 Tour included a spectacular stage to Arenberg but a number of podium contenders’ races ended on a day described as “carnage” by Wiggins.

“What worries me about cobbles are the crashes, the mechanical problems. A mechanical problem in the wrong moment of the race when things are kicking off could lead to you losing the Tour. I’m not a big fan of that,” Froome told Cycling News.

Any cobbled stage could come soon after the transfer from the UK to France. The route will be unveiled at the Palais des Congres today but what is already known is that the race will begin in Leeds on 5 July.

It will be the fourth time the race has visited the UK and first since 2007, when a Westminster prologue was followed by a stage through Kent. The opening stage to Harrogate is expected to end in a sprint, giving Mark Cavendish the chance to take the yellow jersey in his mother’s home town. The second, hilly stage is from York to Sheffield before another stage which is expected to end in a sprint, the third day’s route from Cambridge to The Mall in central London.