USADA Witness Greg LeMond: Personal Motivation for Revenge

The Lance Armstrong doping case gets stranger by the minute.  Travis Tygart claims that he received death threats  against him and his family, attacks which might be expected because there are some very unpredictable people in this world.  Thus the phrase going postal.

Yeah, there were disgruntled people who had grudges against their employers who thought it appropriate to murder people at random in retaliation for some incoherent slight.  There were riders on the U.S. Postal Service Professional cycling team who probably felt slighted too, guys who thought they should have been included on Tour de France teams, or guys who thought that their contracts should have been extended for another year.  Yes. Some team decisions probably generated some resentment among miffed riders against sport director Johan Bruyneel and team leader Lance Armstrong, and a strong desire for retaliation. Given the chance in an opportunistic setting the long repressed desire for revenge suddenly manifested itself in glowing testimony in front of an arbitration hearing.

Fanciful?  No.  Greg LeMond had the strongest desire to be known as the only American Tour de France champion and he was mortified when Lance Armstrong emerged as the better American cyclist.  Greg LeMond was chagrined by being upstaged by Lance Armstrong, a man who had as good as a recovery  from a personal calamity as Greg LeMond.  Lance Armstrong was stricken with testicular cancer, a man  who survived invasive chemotherapy and radiation treatments, a survivor who went on to win seven consecutive Tours de France.  Greg LeMond survived being shot by a cousin in a hunting accident, there are still shotgun pellets lodged in his heart, nevertheless, against all odds, Greg LeMond survived to win two Tours de France.

But curiously, instead of supporting the medical miracle of Lance Armstrong, Greg LeMond displayed an offended, sour visage.  Greg LeMond has always maintained that when he rode there was a miraculous hiatus of doping among the peloton; even though Bernard Hinault and Laurent Fignon both tested positive for amphetamines during his riding career.  Yes, the mythical spin of the complete clean Greg LeMond riding triumphantly during cycling's drug free years, crushing the badger during the 1986 Tour de France.  Yes, Greg LeMond told the press if not for the hunting accident he would have dominated the Tour de France for ten straight years!  But woe descended upon poor Greg LeMond during his greatest years and left him a bitter man.  Without the hunting accident Greg LeMond was convinced that he would have been regarded as the greatest all time cyclist, better than Eddy Merckx!  Greg LeMond could never accept this injustice of fate, he constantly lamented his misfortunes, his personal reaction to his tragedy is perfectly understandable, and his story did elicit sympathy and praise from the cycling fanatics, until one fine day the bitterness was transferred into personal doping accusations and attacks against the then current and defending Tour de France champion Lance Armstrong.  After each and every Lance Armstrong Tour de France victory, Greg LeMond would race to the podium and into press interviews imploring Lance Armstrong to confess his use of performance enhancing drugs.  This alleged use of performance enhancing drugs by Lance Armstrong became a fixation for Greg LeMond and soon began to become tiresome to racing fanatics who came to the conclusion that Greg LeMond was jealous of Lance Armstrong's success.

Jealously of Lance Armstrong's success would have been motivation enough for Greg LeMond to tell tall tales, but sadly there is more.  There is the issue of the mysterious telephone call Greg LeMond claims to have received when sitting in an airport parking lot, a call that supposedly was witnessed and transcribed by Kathy LeMond, a telephone call where Greg LeMond claimed to have been threatened by Lance Armstrong.  Greg LeMond contends that Lance Armstrong told him to back off on the unceasing defamatory comments or he would find seven Z ex-teammates that would testify that they saw Greg LeMond using the blood boosting steroid recombinant EPO.  [Note:  rEPO was available as a performance enhancing drug during the 1989 and 1990 Tours de France; although there was no test to detect the substance at the time.  This statement of fact further undermines the assertion of Greg LeMond that the peloton was riding performance enhancing drug free during this period.]

So we have the Greg LeMond telephone story, and the Greg LeMond threat story, and this certainly fits into the hypotheses concocted by USADA that Lance Armstrong was a brutal dictator of the U.S. Postal Service Professional Cycling Team who used threats and intimidation to suppress witnesses from confessing to USADA that there was a conspiracy of rampant forced distribution and forced use of performance enhancing drugs ongoing on the U.S. Postal Service Professional Cycling Team.  For example, Floyd Landis would have pointed out to USADA years before cheating with synthetic testosterone to win the Tour de France that there was rampant doping going on years before at U.S. Postal only if he did not live in fear of "living with the fishes."  And Tyler Hamilton would have never considered blood doping to win an Olympic time trial gold medal, if only he did not live in constant fear that he would be buried in concrete somewhere in the Meadowlands.  Thus, it is as obvious as the nose on your face that these threats of certain death by Lance Armstrong and Johan Bruyneel during the U.S. Postal days certainly justifies the suspension of the statute of limitations by USADA. [Note:  The suspension of the statute of limitations was first based upon the supposition that Lance Armstrong, who cited his five hundred and fifty passed drug tests was committing perjury, thus the justification for the waiver of the statute of limitations has evolved over time into totally unrelated areas than perjury.]

Greg LeMost has attained his lifetime goal of being the only American Tour de France champion and he and his charming wife Kathy must be celebrating this fact with tears of gratification to USADA and champagne.  And you can bet your last dollar that if called upon to testify against Johan Bruyneel that Greg LeMond will be more than an enthusiastic witness, and on his face there will no longer be an offended, sour visage, but a  happy, joyous expression of personal self satisfaction!

You see, good old Travis Tygart can't seem to figure out why Johan Bruyneel would want to contest the USADA conspiracy charges, he wanted every thing on a silver platter carte blanche.  Travis Tygart does not seem able to understand why USADA would spend precious American taxpayer dollars defending his "overwhelming evidence."  Travis Tygart declared that Johan Bruyneel has nothing to gain by contesting the USADA charges and Mr. Tygart has declared that he will force Lance Armstrong to testify against Johan Bruyneel in the arbitration hearing.  These USADA threats against Mr. Bruyneel are certainly unnecessary, what could Mr. Armstrong possibly testify to, the fact that he passed every anti-doping test administered to him?  But, nevertheless, Travis Tygart has forgotten the most important thing:  if Johan Bruyneel does not contest the charges he will face a lifetime ban.  Mr. Bruyneel has nothing to lose and must fight. Mr. Bruyneel has everything to gain.  USADA will be forced to show their hand and present their witnesses in open arbitration. The Lance Armstrong and Johan Bruyneel confessions of doping and conspiracy that Mr. Tygart was counting on are not going to materialize, and without any material or physiological proofs, USADA has a great probability of losing in arbitration.

If USADA loses the Johan Bruyneel arbitration case, then it will be time for Congress to seriously consider de-funding USADA!