UCI president Brian Cookson says Lance Armstrong's planned participation on part of a charity ride that will tackle the Tour de France route this summer a day ahead of the race is "inappropriate and disrespectful."
The disgraced cyclist has been invited to spend a couple of days on the ride by former England footballer Geoff Thomas, who credits cancer survivor Armstrong with helping insprire him to successfully fight leukaemia after being diagnosed with the disease in 2003.
Although the UCI has no jurisdiction over the event, which Thomas hopes will raise £1 million for the charity Cure Leukaemia, Cookson was unequivocal in his opinion when speaking at the Sport Industry Breakfast Club in London.
He said it was "completely inappropriate and disrespectful to the Tour de France, the peloton and the UCI" for Armstrong, banned from sport for life in 2012 and stripped of the seven yellow jerseys he won between 1999 and 2005, to take part.
The Texan's planned participation in the event has polarised opinion. Some believe that Armstrong's presence will help Thomas raise more funds for his charity, with broadcaster Ned Boulting among those to wish the ex-footballer well in achieving his goal.
Others, such as Sir Dave Brailsford maintain that Armstrong should stay away, with the Team Sky principal expressing concerns that the media attention his presence in France would undoubtedly bring would be a "massive distraction" from this summer's race.
40 thoughts on “Brian Cookson: Lance Armstrong participation in Tour de France charity ride “inappropriate and disrespectful””
Lance Armstrong:
Lance Armstrong: disrespectful and inappropriate? Surely not!
Let him ride, I say. I don’t accept Brailsford’s worry. Pro cycling needs to accept the past in order to move into the future, and all that crap. Mind you, that’s not so easy when pro riders are still being caught out for doping on a pretty much monthly basis.
my respect for Cookson is
my respect for Cookson is growing – he’s not afraid to speak out. =D>
stenmeister wrote:my respect
Agree. I care more that he is willing to have and express an opinion than what the opinion actually is to some extent.
Though in this case I agree.
stenmeister wrote:my respect
Doesn’t take much courage to speak out against the fallen, opposing whom was part of your election campaign. This is just appeasing his supporter base, specially in the UK.
His bravery is more apparent if he speaks out this openly on the current issues of the sport – ongoing doping issues, money & exploitation in women’s cycling, and his plans for popularising cycling as a sport to the 90% population that lives outside Europe and US.
stenmeister wrote:my respect
Maybe, but he is choosing his battles a bit carefully. Few are going to disagree on him mouthing off against Armstrong. There are other promises he isn’t speaking out on, and I don’t recall he had much to say about Zorzoli, for example
Guy gets cancers. Guy reads
Guy gets cancers. Guy reads Lance’s book, and returns to it time and again for inspiration during treatment. Guy survives and takes up cycling to raise money for cancer, again inspired by Lance. Guy befriends Lance. Guy invites his friend on a couple of stages of his latest ride – a ride which Lance is NOT banned from. The world goes mad!!!
Cookson should keep his nose out – what has this gotta do with the UCI?
daddyELVIS wrote:Guy gets
Agreed. Not content with the normal disciplinary route some people want to see him hunted out of everything.
Cookson seems like a good guy but what he should have said is this.
Could not agree more with
Could not agree more with that statement oozaveared
Guy gets cancers. Guy reads
Guy gets cancers. Guy reads mostly fallacious book written by a fraudulent sociopath, and returns to it time and again for inspiration during treatment. Guy survives and takes up cycling to raise money for cancer, again inspired by fraudulent sociopath. Guy befriends fraudulent sociopath.
Guy loses respect. The world goes mad!!!
andyp wrote:Guy gets cancers.
I see what you did there 😉
Having met Geoff at the 2007
Having met Geoff at the 2007 TFD in London , i wish him SUCCESS in his Fund Raising efforts !
I am glad i did not get invited , since i have nO Idea where i would raise the 50k for which each of the team has responsibility .
WHY are ALL getting ” knickers in a twist “? IF the guy is only good for several stages , doesn’t this demonstrate that he did not have the ability to ride 7 TDF in Good Health ?
Come on Brian , get on YOUR Bike and ride with Geoff , he may not ask you to chip in from the CHF260k that you get for voicing your opinions ? You will be at the TDF for the start , so arrive a day earlier and help Geoff Thomas get this important ” Fund Raiser ” off to a good start !
Meanwhile i will ride for the 18th time , on the day and try to evade the attention of the Gendarmerie Cadets , who wouldn’t know a ” Disabled Athlete ” let alone help a man with a White Stick , across the road !
Even georgethecyclist.blogspot will ride more of the route than 7 failures !
He who is without sin.
Bet
He who is without sin.
Bet you’ve done something wrong in your life too. There can only be good come from a fund raiser for cancer charity.
Hope it never is disease that you suffer from
Odd really as the UCI have
Odd really as the UCI have let Riis and many others with a doping past -where admission only came once they could not be touched- into the pro sport itself and that is fine. LA wants to ride on some french roads and he’s targeted. Yep, fully aware he is a bit of an arse, but it is rather skewed.
My grind with Lance is the
My grind with Lance is the way he abused his position and made other’s lives misery to further his end however he has been some what repentant and I’m willing to give him have the chance to make a mends and raise a bit of money for cancer charities.
He is already banned from competition and events that align with USADA policies so I think making a fuss / blocking him from this is not achieving anything other than dredging up history .
The fight against doping and abuse of position should be in the present and let Lance get on with his life
Cookson, and UCI are probably
Cookson, and UCI are probably worried that Lance doing a few stages for an incredible worthy cause ( regardless of his history ), will get more publicity and be followed by more people than the actual tour.
Arceye wrote:Cookson, and UCI
And that his times will smash the pros’ times the following day.
Does anyone actually find
Does anyone actually find “Sports Cheat Returns to Scene of Crime” that inspiring a tagline? What Thomas is doing – as someone with no professional cycling history – is phenomenal, and an inspiring challenge.
On the other hand, the fact that Armstrong can complete a few stages of the tour, isn’t really that amazing. In fact, “Lance Armstrong riding the Tour” is, for many people, anything BUT inspiring. It’s a bitter revival of something they thought had been put to bed.
I think people are more inclined to throw money at an ex-footballer building himself up for a monumental new challenge, than some disgraced cheat coming out of retirement to do his old day-job.
For the sake of the charity, it might be better if Armstrong pulled out. They’ve already got the publicity from all this controversy; there’s no need for the purity of Thomas’ effort to be tainted or distracted from. It doesn’t matter if Armstrong’s he’s doing it for ‘the right reasons’; this isn’t about Armstrong; it’s about Thomas’ challenge and his cause. If either of those are diminished by Armstrong’s presence, he shouldn’t be there.
Call me cynical, but to me
Call me cynical, but to me this is all about publicity for Geoff’s charity ride. How do we drum up publicity? How about we invite the most divisive figure in cycling to ride with us for a couple of days? That’ll get ’em talking and get us noticed. From Armstrong’s perspective, it’s the chance to be seen to be supporting a truly inspirational figure and doing something for the good of others rather than himself. This improves his image (it couldn’t get much worse!) – nothing to lose. If the opposition to him riding is overwhelming, he makes a gracious withdrawal from the event and wishes Geoff well (as we all do). Armstrong gains again, but so does the profile of the charity ride. Didn’t somebody once say ‘there’s no such thing as bad publicity’?
It’s disappointing that Geoff
It’s disappointing that Geoff Thomas would invite Armstrong along. What was he thinking of?
He that walketh [or cycleth] with wise men shall be wise; but a companion of fools shall be destroyed.
He who is without sin cast
He who is without sin cast the first stone.
That’s another one of those much used sayings. This is to raise money for people with diseases that are difficult to cure. It will make more if he’s there.
Cycling; one of the few
Cycling; one of the few sports to constantly live in the past. We’re advanced in terms of what’s being done to frames, wheels, helmets etc but yet stuck in the past with regards to our riders past mistakes instead of just leaving them be and moving on.
If cycling was an ex-girlfriend/boyfriend then it’d be the worst at moving on after the split!
The UCI were in cahoots and
The UCI were in cahoots and knew about the doping, so that’s why they don’t want him to do it. They’re just sore that he got found out.
Go on, Lance, do it anyway just to piss everyone off.
Cookson seems to have done a
Cookson seems to have done a good job of delivering on his election promises, but in this case he sounds more like his predecessor and playing to the crowd with a fairly meaningless sound bite. As others have pointed out, it’s a very hypocritical statement when guys like Riis and Vinokourov are still involved in running teams. Maybe his comment should’ve been “No comment”?
Cookson needs to start
Cookson needs to start banning for life the ‘newbie dopers’, I am, unlike others getting less and less respect for Cookson, concentrate on the job at hand and not the passed. It’s now coming across as bitter kids who were bullied in the playground and now feel safe, so they just keep going on about it.
What I find more distrispectful to the sport the TdF is that they, UCI, are thinking it’s ok to let the like of Riis etc continue to be the mentors etc, for the young and impressionable pro riders.
Lance is last years Chip paper. Let him ride, oh, no one can stop him, public roads, so Cookson needs to get out of his old school boy network clubs and start doing what matters.
Cookson really has no class ,
Cookson really has no class , it’s not as if Lance is only person who has admitted doping or been caught . Laurent Brochard to name but one is working for the Tour organisation the hypocrisy from Mr Sky is stunning
RIP Tommy Simpson.
RIP Tommy Simpson.
Trek, Giro, Nike. What’s your
Trek, Giro, Nike. What’s your thoughts then?
What a laugh. You have to
What a laugh. You have to give Armstrong top marks for his cheek.
Condor flyer wrote:What a
Yeah, its obviously a cunning rouse to invade Poland and murder more babies. How did he think he could get away with it?
Lance could move his little
Lance could move his little finger and give a million if he wanted to(if the lawyers haven’t taken it all by now). The riding is just because he is an attention whore. His charity never did anything to fight cancer just “bring awareness” and feed money to his banking friends. Cancer has been cured already try looking up honeybee venom therapy or cannabis oil. The game is just to feed cash and victims to the pharmaceutical companies. Amgen makes EPO (the dopers favorite) and sponsors the tour de California. The whole thing is entertainment nothing more, a show.
coach wrote:Lance could move
Oh yeah, all great points. Sorry, I was concentrating on the baby murderering and forgot about his devious plan to hide the cure for cancer and divert the money to his global banking friends. It’s becoming increasingly obvious that he also caused the global financial crisis. And now he has agreed to take part in a charity ride! My goodness, what a cheek he has!
coach wrote:Lance could move
Hurrah! We’ve got conspiracy trolls on here as well ! Can we start a thread on ‘Big Pharma’ and 9/11 as well?
FFS. Cancer has not been cured. No-one is ‘feeding cash and victims to the pharamceutical companies’. Get a grip.
Christ there are some mean
Christ there are some mean spirited miserable f*ckers posting on here.
Where can I donate? I have remortgaged my house and want to give as much as I can. It’s great that Lance is willing to agree to this guy’s request and hopefully raise a shed load more cash for cancer. I bet he doesn’t give a stuff about Brailsford, Cookson or any of their cronies. Whooooo hoooooo!
On the face of things I have
On the face of things I have no problem with Armstrong raising money for charity at this or any other event.
The problem comes when Armstrong uses the oxygen of PR for his own agenda, and I think that this is where Cookson and the ASO are coming from. While I’m sure they don’t object to him raising money either, they will be concerned if he starts using it to further his cause.
Perhaps Cookson and others are wrong to object, but I doubt that Armstrong is going to simply turn up and ride without holding court with the press. He will use it for his own purposes. Given his attempts of late to manage his public image I have no doubts about that.
Armstrong always has an ulterior motive and I’m sure that’s the case here and what the UCI and ASO are worried about.
Colin Peyresourde
Much like other dopers, his main motive was to win races and earn money – problem was, he did it better than the others.
I think you’ll find his motive here is to help out a friend. I believe he declined at first but Thomas was insistent – so much so, he flew out to America to see Armstrong and persuade him.
Perhaps the UCI are fearful he might say something he’s not supposed to when the French press stick a mic under his nose!
daddyELVIS wrote:Colin
Much like other dopers, his main motive was to win races and earn money – problem was, he did it better than the others.
I think you’ll find his motive here is to help out a friend. I believe he declined at first but Thomas was insistent – so much so, he flew out to America to see Armstrong and persuade him.
Perhaps the UCI are fearful he might say something he’s not supposed to when the French press stick a mic under his nose!— Colin Peyresourde
Got to agree with that.
Mr Peyresourde, living in Texas and being part of the cycling community I’m aware that Lance has ridden several charity rides ‘under the radar’, no publicity, you don’t even know he’s on them until you turn up and think “I recognise that guy!”. He doesn’t post them on Strava; as I suppose that would get some kind of knee-jerk reaction from those who can’t move on.
We’ve got one coming up soon from Austin that he’s ridden and if he’s there it won’t make any difference either way. We really won’t be eating babies at the rest stops and summoning up the devil at the post-ride party.
daddyELVIS wrote:Colin
Much like other dopers, his main motive was to win races and earn money – problem was, he did it better than the others.— Colin Peyresourde
As gets repeated ad nauseum here and elsewhere, it’s not so much that Armstrong doped per se but that he was such a cunt whilst he was doing it – and tried to ruin the lives of a number of people.
I really hope he makes a bunch of money for the charity but i’m still a little wary of what he may try and make of the situation – I hope he does The Right Thing by them.
I doubt it.
Whilst not a fan of Mr
Whilst not a fan of Mr Armstrong the UCI should not have a stated opinion on this. Ok, so it has a tenuous link to the TdF but it is not a UCI sanctioned event.
Nothing to do with the UCI.
Nothing to do with the UCI. Whatever you think of LA the UCI have already dealt with him to the extent of their power and need to leave it there. LA doesn’t exist to the UCI any more, why are they talking about his activities at all?
The correct statement from Cookson would have been ‘what’s this got to do with us?’
I am in the camp who really
I am in the camp who really doesn’t like Cookson as a leader for a international governing body, he seems to completely lacks the required skill set to lead the organisation like that
anyone with any political nature would have spun that story, first of all pointed out that ‘its nothing to do with cycling and the UCI, however he hopes LA will wake up each morning of that challenge realising the mistake he made and what he has lost in his life due to choices – and how UCI is concentrating now on what is relavent’
Rather he has ompletely denounced the person like the rest of the sensationalist- but not tried to force ASO to not invite any former convicted doper to the tour.
It smacks of amatuerism and weak leadership.
I myself aren’t seeing huge strides being made by the UCI under cookson – with Astana, I don’t know the full story, bt why not put the team under ‘special measures’ – rater than trying to loose another sponsor from the sport by pulling the license.
Whther its liked or not, McQuiad seemeda specialist in damage limitation, trying to hide and plug the holes in a barrel that was leaking like a sieve, if they had blown LA in 1999 – the sport would have been rubber ducked, then after that it was perpetual, tesing couldn’t keep up with he cheats in any sport so remained damage limitation.
CIRC mightbe all well and good but it should be about shoving in the face how good/clean/moral thesport is now – and even finding a way to prove how dirty other sports are to provide relative statements to the common man and commercial sponsors – not making your focus what bad.