Lance Armstrong Slams French Hotel Accommodation During the Tour

August 11, 2010. Speaking at a National Business Travel Association conference in Houston, Texas, Lance Armstrong delivered his stock cancer survival and triumph speech to the audience of more than 1,000 delegates. Then during the Q & A session that followed, Armstrong delivered a stinging rebuke of the quality of French hotels allocated to the teams participating in the Tour de France. He was responding to a question by the moderator who works for a company that runs French hotels.

"Most of my travel — at least in Europe — was in France, staying in these ... (pause or something deleted, hotels). You're competing in the biggest race in the world and you're stuck staying in these horrible hotels."

Then in an attempt at some humour, he asked "There are no French hotel owners in here, are there?" Instead of a laugh, the crowd responded with a murmur. The moderator responded with, "I'm going to have to disagree."

Armstrong is reported to have named the hotels he considered "horrible". While we don't have a quote, there’s a fair chance that hotels that are part the chain owned by France-based hotelier Accor made Armstrong's list. Accor is the biggest hotel operator in France and has 4,000 hotels worldwide, nearly a quarter of them in the United States. It's French hotel groups include the Mercure, Ibis, Formule 1 and Novotel, hotels. In addition, Accor's Etap brand also acts as an official supplier to the Tour with advertisements featured on the pre-race publicity caravan.

Hotel accommodation for teams competing in the Tour de France are booked and allocated by Amaury Sport Organisation (ASO). Teams are obliged to stay at these hotels and cannot make their own reservations.  Article 9 of the Tour de France rules stipulates that those taking part in the race and their team managers must sleep and take their meals 'in the premises designated for this purpose by the organisation, to the exclusion of any other.'

Faced with the task of finding say 500 rooms of a similar standard, sometimes in remote towns and villages, ASO tries to ensure that each team gets its share of the better hotels.

Being a millionaire and a sports star, Armstrong may expect the best accommodation available, but in reading the report from the conference, even though the moderator offered to set him up at plush hotels he wouldn't be disappointed with during his next trip to France, Armstrong wasn't about to voluntarily go back to France.

Former Team-mate Comes to Lance Armstrong's Defence

Lance Armstrong (second rider) in the
black and red RadioShack team colours

On August 11, 2010, in an interview with Fox Sports, a former U.S. Postal Service team-mate of Lance Armstrong, Patrick Jonker (who now manages the Australian-based Virgin Blue/RBS Morgan team), dismissed the allegations of drug cheating levied against Armstrong.

Jonker told Fox Sports, "I didn’t see anything. If I was subpoenaed to go to court and put my hand on the Bible, I’d go. This is not a game, it’s very serious."

Jonker also told Fox Sports that he was willing to undergo a lie detector test and that he had known Armstrong since he was the "big Texan triathlete" who "kicked our arse" when racing against an Australian bike team in the 1992 Barcelona Olympics. Apparently, the two shared a hotel room while training with their respective national teams. Moreover, Jonker claims a very close acquaintance with Armstrong telling Fox "Some years, he spent more time with me than his wife!"

In the interview, Jonker went on to describe Lance Armstrong as a "freak of nature" with an "amazing" heart and lung capacity and tolerance to lactic acid.

However, while Jonker rode the Tour de France five times between 1994-99, a toe injury caused Jonker to miss the Tour in 2000 - his one and only year with US Postal team. Nobody doubts that Lance Armstrong was an exceptional and winning bike rider. It is with regard to winning the Tour de France an unprecedented seven times during early to mid-2000s, that the main allegations regarding illegal performance enhancement have arisen.

It is one thing for a loyal team-mate to say they have no knowledge of the cheating and quite another to categorically say that Armstrong never cheated in preparation for, or while racing the Tour. It will be interesting to hear what Jonker has to say about alleged cheating during the early to mid-2000 and whether he was so closely associated with Armstrong during that time that the investigators can effectively rule out any doping or drug use.

Did Lance Armstrong Cheat? The World Awaits News From the US Drug Investigation

Floyd Landis

"Yes, I saw Lance Armstrong using drugs," said Floyd Landis, who won the 2006 Tour de France but was later stripped of the title because he failed the Tour's blood tests which indicated he had used illegal performance enhancing drugs.

[For background information, please read our page on Scandals.]

Floyd Landis, Lance Armstrong's former team-mate and friend told all to ABC's Nightline - his first interview since admitting doping during his career - on July 23, 2010 (see videos below).

He also told Nightline that his former friend and team-mate had transfused his own blood "Yes, many times".

Armstrong, who had won the Tour de France a record breaking seven-times Tour winner between 1999 and 2005, has always vehemently denied the accusations. He has also never tested positive for a banned substance or procedure.

On August 1, 2010, the China Daily cited Zhang Bin, secretary-general of the Chinese Cycling Association as saying that a 32-year-old Chinese rider on Lance Armstrong’s Team RadioShack has been confirmed as testing positive for using the banned substance, Clenbuterol, an anabolic agent.

A secret former Armstrong
team-mate speaks to the
New York Times
and backs up the cheating
allegations

On August 5, 2010, the New York Times reported that an unidentified former team-mate of Lance Armstrong had spoken to the newspaper and confirmed Floyd Landis' claims that while they were on the Postal Service team, they had engaged in systematic (systemic?) doping with Armstrong’s knowledge and approval. The secret informant added that he had spoken with federal investigators looking into the persistent cheating allegations. The unnamed rider admitted his own performance-enhancing drug use but said that nevertheless, he had never delivered a positive test during his career and he has not been called before the grand jury in Los Angeles that is investigating the case. The implication is that even though Lance Armstrong never tested positive for a banned drug, that does not definitively mean he never used drugs.

The cheating allegations now seem to implicate the entire team led my Lance Armstrong from 1999 to 2005.

On August 6, 2010, Wisconsin-based Trek Bicycle Corporation officials announced that they have provided documents to a federal criminal investigation involving Lance Armstrong. Armstrong endorses Trek bikes and has worked with Trek since 1998 when the company sponsored Armstrong's US Postal Service team. Trek now sponsors Armstrong's latest team, Radio Shack.

Lance Armstrong’s attorney Bryan D. Daly said "To the extent that any riders are suggesting that Lance Armstrong violated cycling rules or doped, they are either mistaken or not telling the truth. Lance has ridden with hundreds of riders over the years who will support his position, and over all that time he has never failed even a single test."

However, while we had heard from a few former team-mates, we have yet to hear from "the hundreds of riders" especially under oath.

Armstrong's attorney Daly went on to call the investigation un-American: "The power of the federal government is being abused to pursue dated and discredited allegations, and that’s flat-out wrong, unethical, un-American, and a waste of taxpayer dollars."

Up to now, the Armstrong defence team response to allegations has been angry put-downs and wrapping themselves in the flag. This might work if the investigators are easily intimidated. It won't work if the investigators doggedly seek the truth. What might be more helpful (than intimidation and mud-slinging) for Armstrong's defence to the allegations are sworn statements by the "hundreds of riders" cited by Armstrong's attorney - that Armstrong never violated cycling rules related to the use of prohibited performance enhancing techniques or drugs.

Click here to read our page on Scandals for various stories and background on the drug scandal surrounding Lance Armstrong, Floyd Landis and other US Tour de France cyclists.

The interview with ABC Nightline: