Lance Armstrong is “the biggest bandit in the history of sport”: Ex-professional Jérôme Pineau attacks Texans – Eurosport

Armstrong “bribed everyone, he was tyrannical to his teammates and obnoxious to the peloton,” Pineau went one step further with his criticism.

“He was above all laws. With his statements he lumps everyone together. He was the strongest because he cheated more than the others! He bought the system! He is the biggest bandit in the history of sport,” rumbled the Frenchman who, among other things, won the Tour de Normandie in 2002 and the Tour de l’Ain in 2004. In 2010, Pineau also took a stage win at the Giro d’Italia.

Armstrong should “shut up! He corrupted entire generations, including me. He may have been talented, but he tyrannized the entire peloton. He had the entire political and sporting system behind him. Not everyone was like him , it wasn’t me and neither were the guys on my team.”

Cycling doesn’t need guys like the 52-year-old, says Pineau: “Don’t say you paid for the others! We weren’t all like you! I can’t hear him talking like that, he’s been cheating his whole life.”

Armstrong dominated cycling between 1999 and 2005, winning the Tour de France seven times in a row.

There have been doping rumors about the superstar for a long time. In 2012 he was banned for life by the UCI world association and stripped of all titles he had won since August 1, 1998 – including his successes in the Tour of France.

A year later, Armstrong finally confessed to doping abuse for the first time on a talk show. In the “Zeit” interview with Ullrich, Armstrong said, among other things, about the German and himself: “It may not sound modest, but we were the biggest in world cycling.”