Professional cycling won’t clean up its doping problem until drug testing is run by someone other than the sport’s governing body, former Tour de France winner Greg LeMond said on Monday.
“Drug testing has to be separated,” from the International Cycling Union, known as UCI, LeMond said. “It’s not a game.”
LeMond spoke at a University of Texas at Austin symposium on doping in sports. LeMond says riders don’t trust the sport’s governing body, which has had to defend itself against criticism from US officials that it helped Lance Armstrong cover up doping offenses.
LeMond won the Tour de France in 1986, 1989 and 1990 and is now recognised as the only American winner after Armstrong was stripped last year of his seven victories. He noted that European legal authorities have pursued drug cheats in recent years.
“I want to see cycling get to where I can say I can see a real winner,” LeMond said.
Joining LeMond for the two-hour panel was his wife, Kathy, Betsy Andreu, a key witness against Armstrong and the wife of former Armstrong teammate Frankie Andreu, and Bill Bock, attorney for the US Anti-Doping Agency, which investigated Armstrong. Armstrong did not attend the meeting in the city where he lives.
