Company paid a total of $12 million to US Postal Service rider in relation to Tour victories
As the dust continues to settle after the upheaval caused by the USADA report into Lance Armstrong’s doping, a Texan insurance company which paid out over ten millions dollars to the rider in performance bonuses and legal fees has said it is closely watching the situation, and that legal action could be possible.
During Armstrong’s winning streak of Tour successes, US Postal Service team owner Tailwind Sports took out a policy with the Texas-based SCA Promotions, paying a premium to cover the performance bonuses that would be due to the rider when he won the Tour.
A sum of $5 million was payable after he won his sixth Tour title in 2004 but, on the basis of the doping claims made in the LA Confidentiel book, SCA refused to pay out on the grounds that the Tour wins may not have been clean.
In response, Armstrong took legal action against SCA Promotions and eventually won on the basis that the original contract between that company and Tailwind Sports didn’t include stipulations about doping. The company ended up paying the sum in question as well as an additional $2.5 million in interest and legal fees.
In addition to that, it had previously paid the rider $4.5 million for his victories in 2001/2002 and 2003. In total, the contract with Armstrong cost the company $12 million.
Now, with Armstrong stripped of his Tour de France titles by USADA and no longer considered the winner of the event by that agency, SCA Promotions is awaiting the next step in the process. For now, it states that it’s too soon to say what it will do.
“At this point it is in the hands of the UCI; we will wait to see what their reaction is before we plan our next steps,” SCA’s Jeff Dorough told VeloNation.
The UCI and WADA have received USADA’s reasoned decision and must now decide whether they will accept it, or if they will appeal it to the Court of Arbitration for Sport. WADA is considered very unlikely to do so, while the UCI has said it will take that action only if USADA’s case is weak or there are clear issues.
Providing the ruling is accepted, Dorough said that SCA Promotions will then consider what could be done. “We will certain speak with legal council and determine whether or not we have a case or not,” he said.
“At this point in time, we are encouraged by the ruling in that we fully support USADA’s efforts to clean up doping in sport. We are encouraged in that they are enforcing their principles and we fully stand behind them in doing so.
“We now await the reaction of the UCI to the report.”