Former UCI President Hein Verbruggen has denied suggestions of a cover up of doping results involving Lance Armstrong, and said that he doesn’t feel he has a case to answer.
“There's no reason that I should continue to prove my innocence - let people prove that we are guilty,” he said in a phone interview with the Associated Press yesterday.
The Dutchman was responding to the CBS 60 Minutes programme screened on Sunday, which contained serious allegations that the UCI had helped shield Armstrong after the Texan gave a suspicious urine test during the 2001 Tour de Suisse. He won that race and went on to take his most dominant Tour victory two weeks later.
According to the programme, the lab director gave a sworn statement to the FBI saying that the UCI wanted the matter dropped. Armstrong’s former team-mate Floyd Landis first alleged a cover-up last year, and this was repeated by another past US Postal Service rider, Tyler Hamilton, in Sunday’s programme.
“I know he has had a positive test before…for EPO. It was the Tour of Switzerland 2001. He told me,” Hamilton said. “He was so relaxed about it, he kind of laughed it off.”
Asked by 60 Minutes what had happened, Hamilton was adamant on what took place. “People took care of it,” he said. “I don't know all the exact details, but I know that Lance's people and the people from the other side, I believe from the governing body of the sport, figured out a way for it to go away. I was told this by Lance.”
Verbruggen has rejected the claims. “There has never been a cover-up. Not in the Tour de Suisse, not in the Tour de France,” he said. “I don't know anything about suspicious tests. I was not aware of that.”
He repeated these denials in a separate interview with AD.nl. “What should I do? Must I prove that I have not done it? Is the world upside down? Moreover, I think there is also a task for journalism. Now I always defend myself every time there is an idiot with this kind of story. But no one has yet proven anything.
“It's impossible, because there is nothing. I repeat again: Lance Armstrong has never used doping. Never, never, never. And I say this not because I am a friend of his, because that is not true. I say it because I'm sure. Even if we would like, it would not be possible to bury a positive test. Test results are not only given to the UCI, but also to WADA. So once and for all: under my presidency such practices never occurred in the UCI.”
During his tenure as president, Verbruggen strongly denied suggestions of a widespread drug problem in the sport. He criticised those who said otherwise, including the riders Giles Delion and Graeme Obree. The Festina Affair proved that they were correct, and that cycling of the 90s was riddled with doping. Verbruggen stood down as UCI president in 2005 when Pat McQuaid was appointed as his successor.
Armstrong’s former US Postal Service team is currently the subject of a focussed investigation. Agents from several US government agencies and USADA have linked up with authorities in other countries. They are looking into claims that the riders used banned substances, but are also understood to be considering possible fraud and trafficking charges.
Armstrong has said that he made several payments of money to the UCI. He stated that these were anti-doping donations, but has said he is not sure of the amounts. He has denied ever using banned products.