This isn't TRUE ? IS IT ?

COPIED from elsewhere :

  "  Below is my translation of Leonardo Bertagnolli's statement as found in the appendices to the Lance Files. Make of it what you will, and don't assume that it's totally accurate if you want to use it for any other purpose than sniggering and throwing doughnuts at dopers.

I began as an amateur in 2000 with Bruno Leali. In 2001 I moved to Team San Pellegrino, run by Secondo Volpi, and in 2002 I turned professional, riding for three years at Saeco, when they also employed Simoni, Di Luca and Celestino. Following that, from 2005 I was employed by Cofidis, in 2007 and 2008 I was at Liquigas alongside Pellizzotti, Pozzato, Nibali and Di Luca. In 2009 I moved to Amica Chips, run by Mori Simone (which collapsed in mid 2009), then from May 2009 I moved to Gianni Savio's Androni Giocattoli. At the start of 2011 I moved to Lampre ISD.

I got to know Michele Ferrari during the first years of my professional career when I rode for Saeco. I don't remember who, but someone gave me the Doctor's number, and I booked an appointment to take just one test at his home in Ferrara. I believe it was in 2002, but I don't recall precisely the year. On that occasion he said nothing to me about taking drugs, nor advised me on banned practices. I went back to Ferrari at the end of 2006, when I had a contract with Liquigas for the next year.

I have suffered from a thyroid problem from 1997, when I was still a boy and what I was an amateur cyclist.

At the end of 2006 when I had thyroid troubles I thought to go back to Dr Ferrari to resolve the problems that were coming from my thyroid dysfunction. I asked the Liquigas personnel (Amadio, Corsetti) for permission to visit Ferrari to take care of my problems, and no-one opposed my decision. I telephoned Ferrari at his home and made an appointment. During the first appointment I set out my health problems to Ferrari and asked if he could help me. Ferrari replied that given that he knew that I rode for Liquigas there were no problems in me using him. In that situation he said to me that the preparatore "must know the athlete and adjust his aim". It was a clear observation and I understood at once its meaning. I state that from then I went periodically to Ferrari also because in 2007 I had the endorsement from Liquigas. During that meeting with Ferrari we agreed a payment of 12.000 Euro a year for his services, payable in instalments. Of those instalments I paid only a fraction of around 3,000 Euro (I don't remember exactly), since in March I had some sort of viral problem with my heart and I stayed inactive until July 2007. I state however that from the beginning of 2007 I presented myself at Monzuno to take the tests, making contact via his Swiss number, which he gave me at the first meeting at the end of 2006. In the camper where we met to do the tests, Ferrari had a haemoglobin meter to test haemoglobin. Every time in the tests done on subsequent occasions he tested my haemoglobin. At the time of the tests he drew me up a training chart, weighed me, and made an assessment of my overall health.

When I returned to training after my heart problems, I went to Ferrari at St Moritz together with Bertolini, Francesco Moser's cycling nephew, Gasparotto, Pellizzotti, Chicchi and several others from other teams. Many of them came from Livigno. I state that in 2006 I went to Livigno of my own accord for training, and there I saw Ferrari with a group of cyclists, among whom was Vinokourov. On the occasion of July 2007, after my sickness, I went as stated to St Moritz and spoke with Ferrari about taking EPO. Ferrari told me to take it in small doses, 1000 UI per day intravenously. "With 1000 you go up, with 500 it's stable," he said. I stayed at St Moritz for 10 days and for 10 days I took EPO as I had been shown by Ferrari. I did as Ferrari advised me, taking Eprex and stopping two or three days before a race. I don't remember exactly for how many days I took EPO, but certainly no less than 7. For sure I had seen Ferrari even before I went to St Moritz, and for sure he advised me on how to take EPO that I [preventivamente mi] had obtained through a one-time amateur cyclist from Brescia by the name of Manuel Bresciani, who I know at San Pellegrino in 2001. I started to take EPO following the advice of Filippo Manelli in 2003, and he showed me to take it sub-cutaneously on the stomach, stopping one week before the race. Ferrari didn't start me on EPO, but simply showed me a different way of taking it with regard to Manelli. So when I went to Ferrari I already knew the substance, that it was forbidden, and what its effects were. I remember that effectively my haematocrit changed 4-5 percentage points. Endocrinologists I have heard explained to me that the effect of this changes would be due to my thyroid dysfunction, since even in that period where I was taking nothing I continued to have changes in haematocrit.

In contrast to what Filippo Manelli had said, Michele Ferrari explained better to me th eway of taking EPO to not be caught positive. While Manelli had told me to take it in the stomach area, subcutaneously, and advised me to stop a week before the race, Michele Ferrari and his method of taking precise measured doses intravenously gave the possibility of taking it up to two or three days before the race, and benefiting from a greater period of effect.

In 2007 I won at San Sebastian and at other small races, and took some good placings.

Following this I suppose that I went back again to Ferrari, given that he lived near me. I remember that at on time in 2007 I saw Popovych and Bileka at Ferrari's house. I state that speaking with other members of the Liquigas team I learned that Pellizzotti went to Ferrari at Monzano. I know that many of my colleagues from Liquigas went to Ferrari because we spoke of it among ourselves, and the team itself was aware: Pellizzotti, Kreuziger, Gasparotto, Chicchi. Doing Ferrari's tests alongside me I sometimes saw Pellizzotti, Gasparotto and Possoni. At the end of his test, we went into his camper one at a time and the examinations were done personally, without the others present.

Between 2007 and 2008 we turn to talk of other things. In 2007 the whereabouts requirements (Adams protocol) came out, and thus there was a chance of being found positive for EPO, hence Dr Ferrari advised me to transfuse my own blood, the "in and out" that we speak about in the interception dated 27-08-2010. Before Ferrari's advice I had never done a blood transfusion. I don't recall exactly where Ferrari explained to me for the first time how to transfuse. I remember that he explained the details of the method, saying to get hold of the special bags via veterinary channels. I got the first ones from Manuel Bresciani. He told me to withdraw between 350 and 500cc, depending on recovery time and my objectives. He told me to knot the bag and to weigh it on scales so that I would know the weight, and hence the amount withdrawn. Before inserting the needle he told me to make a knot in the tube and after that to begin the withdrawal. When the right quantity was reached the tube would be blocked by the clips and the knot would tighten. I did it two or three time because I was afraid that it would get infected. Once the bag was filled he advised to keep it in a Liebherr fridge (a hospital fridge) at a controlled temperature of between 2 and 4 degrees. Ferrari showed me the type of fridge to buy, pointing it out on a leaflet. I myself took care of finding a supplier and bought the fridge in the province of Ravenna, It was Ferrari also who showed me the temperature for preservation of the blood.

Ferrari also advised me as to the timing of blood transfusions, saying to draw the blood before going to altitude and to reinfuse it upon my return, hence to better explain the phase shifts of the parameters, haematocrit, reticulocytes, etc.

Before this meeting with Ferrari I had never done blood transfusions. It was he who showed me the way as I have said above, and even so the first time I was afraid of doing it.

I began that practice in 2008 and did it just one time in the summer because in that time Liquigas forbade me from going to Ferrari, in a change of attitude to their previous tolerance of the visits.

The first time that I withdrew blood and put it back according to the methodology that Ferrari had shown was in August 2008 for the races that month. I reinfused the blood about 20 days after I had withdrawn it. Ferrari told me that the blood should be reinfused after approximately 20 days and after a period at altitude.

In 2009 I did one bag before the Giro del Trentino. That year I won a stage at the Giro d'Italia. I did a couple of bags in the summer of 2009 in preparation for the final part of the season. In 2010 I did my first bag before the Trittico Lombardo, the second before the Gran Premi odi Camaiore (as reported in the interception daterd 27-08-2010) and the third before the Giro di Lombardia.

I saw Michele Ferrari at the end of the 2010 season. Knowing of the investigation into Popovych, he told me to throw everything away because there was a risk of searches. The last time I saw Ferrari he advised me that as an alternative to the traditional bags I should use PP (polypropylene) bags that are hard to find in transfusion centres, or to decant the blood into a glass phial that had just been emptied. I remember that at that meeting in November 2010 I advised him that that situation seemed to me to be extremely dangerous with the possibility of contaminating the blood and a risk of clots.

It was Ferrari who first told me that you could find the bags easily through veterinary channels because they weren't controlled and the product was the same.

Filippo Manelli advised me on taking GH, in particular Geref which I only took a few times on account of its incompatibility with my thyroid problems. Manelli knew about my thyroid problems when I saw him between 2003 and 2006. Nevertheless he advised me to use GH (I don't remember the brand) and other hormones. I only took th ehormones that Manelli advised me to a few times on account of its incompatibility with my condition. Manelli advised me on drugs in his private studio in Gavardo. I paid Manelli for both the consultations and the drugs.

I began to take Testis della Guna in August 2010 on the advice of Michele Ferrari. I took it as he advised me "half a phial on the shoulder". In his camper Ferrari sometimes gave me also an unlabelled phial of a substance that he didn't tell me what it was, telling me to put it on my shoulder, that it wasn't dope, and that it wouldn't harm me. He never revealed to me what was in that phial for which I paid 80 Euro cash.

In 2010 I paid Ferrari around 3000 Euro in cash. In 2009 I paid little because I rode for Simone Mori's Amica Chips, which collapsed and didn't pay my salary.

I have nothing else to add.

HOW MANY MORE STATEMENTS LIKE THIS ARE LURKING ?

This isn't TRUE ? IS IT ?

TWO YEARS ARE NOT ENOUGH !!

FOUND THIS ITEM IN CYCLINGNEWS.COM

MY view is a 4 years ban from any contact with work in the cycling industry whether building, training or travel related minimum perhaps even tagged to stay in the house !

Naming sources and other related issues can earn a reduction of the sentence towards 30 months but return to racing has to be at 2 or 3 levels lower so as to minimise the "holiday/rest effect" that seems to give returnees an edge on those who race continually and thus are tired even after annual holidays.


"Feature date: July 29, 09:22 Features Archive Thomas Dekker: A doper’s desire for redemption
By: Daniel Benson
Thomas Dekker banned until 2011


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Dutchman speaks frankly about past and future ambitions to race clean
In Lausanne, Switzerland, Anne Gripper nervously shuffles papers from one end of her desk to another. She looks up at the clock. 10 A.M. exactly. She sighs at the inevitable but grim task she must carry out and picks up the phone.

In Monaco, Thomas Dekker is dashing around his apartment. The Tour de France starts in three days and he’s not packed. As he scurries from one room to another, collecting enough kit to last three weeks of racing, the phone rings.

Dekker notices it’s a Swiss number but has no idea who it could be. He answers.

“Hello Thomas? Thomas Dekker?”

“Yes.”

“This is Anne Gripper from the UCI. I’m calling to inform you that you’ve tested positive for EPO.”


The rest of the call is a blur for Dekker. He says little. His body taken over with shock, surprise and fear as Gripper’s remaining words wash over him.

“When? How?” Dekker manages to mutter in a low, broken voice. She’s already told him but he hasn’t been listening.

The call ends and Dekker, now sitting at the end of his bed, is trembling. He looks at his half-packed suitcase, glimpses a look of himself in a mirror before bowing his head in tears. “I’m fucked,” he says to himself.

He calls his family, his friends and then his team. There won’t be a Tour for Dekker this year. There won’t be any racing for two years in fact. As a drug cheat in professional cycling he’ll be fired from his team and face two years out of the sport.

More importantly he’ll always be known as a cheat, someone who injected himself with illegal substances in order to con the sport of cycling, his employers, his fans and himself.

Dekker tested positive for EPO in an out-of-competition test carried out by the UCI in December 2007. Only after retrospective testing and careful study of his blood profile was his cheating exposed.

It’s now July 2010, exactly a year to the day since Gripper called Dekker. Looking well but slightly above weight for a professional rider, he’s in Belgium putting the finishing touches to his new house. The walls are still wet with paint and furniture is sparing to say the least but it’s a grand house nonetheless, with an expansive garden. As we walk towards the top of the lawn there’s a repetitive hiss coming from the sprinklers.

“That phone call turned my life upside down,” says Dekker as we sit in the garden. “I told her it wasn’t possible. I was clean then and she said that I was positive from December 2007. I knew exactly what she was talking about. I put the phone down and I called my family and my team.

“Of course there were a lot of rumours and I’d heard them. I heard that my blood values were suspicious. But I thought I was invincible, that they wouldn’t catch me. They saw the values were going up and down and then they decided to do some re-testing,” he says.

The following weeks after Dekker’s positive test read like a typical casebook of doper defence syndrome. First came the denial, then a call for re-testing before he began hitting out at the lab and vowing to clear his name. Amongst it all he even had time to have a pop at Ricardo Ricco, who received a far lesser sentence after apparently helping authorities.

“I was that stupid,” Dekker admits. “I look back now at what I was saying in the press and I can’t believe it.

“I doped in the past,” he says without too much prompting. “The story came out that I doped one time in the winter but when you think about it, when the blood passport is not okay…. I made some mistakes and I doped in the past. I am very sorry and I want to come back clean.”

When Dekker finally admitted his guilt it came with a footnote: that he’d taken EPO once, in December 2007 and tested positive, end of story. An insult to intelligence of fans but now Dekker is trying to turn a corner.

Perhaps in an attempt the wipe the slate clean and start again, the Dutchman is finally admitting that EPO was prevalent in a part of his career, or at least used for a substantial amount of time. Enough time for his blood profiling to arouse suspicion throughout 2008 and for the sport’s governing body to go back and retest his samples; enough suspicion for a number of teams to stay clear of him, including his old team Rabobank.

“It wasn’t just once. It was a longer period.

“I felt invincible,” he says again, looking down as his eyes begin to well-up. “At the time you don’t realise what you’re doing. You’re in this bubble and, and I doped in the past and that’s the story.

“Everyone can take what they want from the past and make their own conclusions. I didn’t dope to win Romandie or Tirreno, but I know what I did.”

According to Dekker, somewhere between those wins in the spring of 2007 and the end of the year, the Dutchman had switched from being one of the most gifted and clean sportsmen to a rider dependent on EPO.

While a rider like David Millar has become synonymous with talking openly about doping and naming the exact races he doped for, Dekker won’t go down that route. For him it’s not necessary.

“I get asked which arm I injected EPO into. I mean, I don’t want talk about that. Is that what people want? Do they really want me to talk about that? I’ll tell the truth, that I doped but I don’t go into too much detail. I know what I did and did not do and I know I won those races clean.”

He pinpoints the end of 2007 as the start of that slippery slope. At the Tour that year, Dekker’s first, his Rabobank team held the yellow jersey through Michael Rasmussen, but four days from Paris the Dane was ejected from the race for lying to authorities as to his whereabouts. Rabobank, who initially stood by their man, fired him and a re-structure of the team begins.

New management came into the Rabobank team, men Dekker describes as non-cycling people, and he quickly made a rod for his own back, speaking out against them at every opportunity. He’s had everything his own way for the last few years and now people that have no knowledge of cycling are telling him what to do. What do they know? They certainly don’t know that he’s invincible.

“I was wrong in my judgment about those people, because I was living in my own bubble. Now I know I was so wrong,” he says.

“I’d had problems all winter with my hip and then with the new team so at the end of 2007 I was feeling a lot of pressure. I wasn’t feeling myself in the team anymore. There was never any pressure from them though to use doping. I went out of my way to dope, I was responsible.”

Yet despite the drugs 2008 was a poor year results-wise. Dekker went from race to race in search of form, unable to find the legs that had helped him in 2007. But it wasn’t his legs that were the problem. He’d lost his head. The regimented life of rising early and training every day had disappeared as he became more reliant on drugs, ego, partying and being the centre of attention.

“I wasn’t living for my sport anymore and I was trying to make up for it by doping. Cycling was my life when I was winning races like Tirreno, I was waking up early, living like a professional should. I was never going out, just doing the same thing always living for my bike. In 2008 that was all different. I lost my seriousness and my focus.”

When his split with Rabobank finally came, the rumours of Dekker’s misdemeanours had already filtered through to the gossips, internet forums and blogs. The rider was without a team heading into the 2009 season, and with no results to speak of few teams were willing to take a chance. One prominent team even met with Dekker, took one look at his profile and decided to walk away. Run, in fact.

Eventually Lotto came in. The same team that hired Bernhard Kohl.

“It wasn’t hard to give up doping in the end. I was searching for a team, I just wanted to ride my bike again and get to a good level. I came to Lotto and I closed the door on what I’d been doing. I suffered so much with all the rumours and the controls and the doubts so then I didn’t want to do it anymore. Stopping was a relief and it felt great.

“I’d heard all the rumours about my blood values. Eventually I knew I had to stop. You can’t ask anyone for advice, I’d stopped making the stupid mistakes by then.”

According to Dekker he began living like a pro again. Riding clean, cutting down on the parties and extravagance and finding the passion and love for the sport he’d somehow lost. “I went to altitude for the first time in my life, I bought an altitude tent. I did everything the right way. It was really hard, I won’t lie, but then suddenly the positive test came out.”

Dekker pauses, his eyes still just at the point of crying as he draws a deep breath.

“I just wanted to ride my bike again and get to a good level. I came to Lotto and I closed the door. I suffered so much with all the rumours and the controls and the doubts so then I didn’t want to do it anymore.”

The question remains as to where Dekker found EPO, who provided it and how did he learn to administer it. On this he becomes vague.

“If you’re using recreational drugs you can’t buy them in the supermarket but everyone knows how to find them and it’s a little bit the same in cycling. Of course some people in my environment knew I was doing it but no one was saying to me, Thomas you have to do this or do that.”

No names, no trace of where the drugs came from. For Dekker it’s a closed door and something he won’t open.

“I was an amateur when it came to doping. I was losing grip on my life but it was me that went and found the EPO and me that took it. I’m responsible, so why blame someone else?”

We sit in silence for a few minutes, the repetitive hissing from the sprinklers still in the background.

“I want to come back and I think I can win races,” he says, smiling for the first time.

“I know that I have to prove again that I’m a good cyclist and I believe in myself. I know that guys like you, journalists, cycling fans, don’t believe me at this moment and I would do the same but I want to put it behind me. I have changed my life completely. I have moved from Italy to Belgium. I am working with a new trainer (Peter Pieters). I am living a tough training regime again and I have hired professional management in order to get me back in the peloton. The only thing I can do is win some races and show that I’m a good cyclist.”

Dekker pauses again. He perhaps knows I’m about to point out that winning races is almost pointless now, that riding clean and advocating for a drug-free sport are what will count if redemption is what he’s looking for.

“All my life I’m going to carry this, I’ll forever be a rider who tested positive and that’s something I have to live with but I don’t want to always live in the past,” he says.

“It’s going to be difficult to find a team, I know that. I’m just hoping to find a good team, come back in a clean team and ride my bike and ride some good races.

“I was young, I was stupid and I’ve seen a lot in my life. I’m 25 years old and I want to come back and have a long career. I love cycling. I just want to show that when I come back. I want the people to see that.

“Some riders have an opinion about me and that’s normal but I know I still have friends in the bunch and when the two-year suspension finishes I hope they give me a second chance and let me prove that I’m a good rider.”

The interview ends and Dekker lets out a sigh, as if to suggest that he’s got as much as he can off his chest. I look at him quizzically still like many, unsure.

He’ll face more of that once he steps back into the public eye and starts promoting himself as a clean rider. He walks me to my car and we say our goodbyes. The hissing has stopped and the only sound from his garden come from the chirping birds in the trees.

“You know what I really want?” he asks before I leave.

“When I’m 37 or 38 I want to look back and say that I did it all again but in the right way. I just want to come back and prove myself again.”

Dekker will find a team, there’s no doubt about that, and he will be competitive too. The progress the sport has made in the last few years proves that riders can race and win clean and while it’s still hard to swallow absolutely everything that Dekker says, due to the partial wall he still guards himself with, it’s clear that he wants a second chance. Let’s just hope that when he’s 37 or 38 he and the rest of the sport can look back at a rider who kept his word and whether he won or not, raced clean.

WOULD ENJOY REALISTIC FEEDBACK FROM THOSE READING MY BLOG

TWO YEARS ARE NOT ENOUGH !!

GREG LEMOND'S TAKE ON THE 2010 TOUR

Data of optimism?
By: Greg LeMondPublished: July 26, 10:05, Updated: July 26, 10:23Good news on this year's Tour


LeMond won the 1989 by eight seconds and that Tour is still talked about almost 20 years later.


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Hating to be the bearer of bad news too often, I am really happy to be able to see some real positive statistics come out of this year's Tour de France. The race between Alberto Contador and Andy Schleck was great to watch. Either one could have won this year’s Tour de France. What made the racing so exciting was how close the competition was. Most importantly their rides are believable and fall within the historic norms of athletic ability.

I have been very critical of the sport and, I believe, justifiably so. I am a cyclist who took up cycling by accident. This sport is so exciting, so romantic and so beautiful that I spent half of my life dedicated to it. My only hope is to see cycling right itself and gain back the credibility that any sport needs to thrive.


With that said, how do we eliminate the huge advantages of doping? The best way is to use the science and technology that already exists today to help eliminate the possibility of getting the huge benefit from taking doping products. This way a clean rider will have the chance to win in any event that he decides to compete in.

To get a better idea of what I mean, go to this website, http://www.sportsscientists.com, and read what two very knowledgeable scientists have to say regarding the performance of the riders in this year's Tour. I have read quite a few of their studies and they seem to know what they are talking about. They are very knowledgeable about the physiology and science of cycling, and have been doing this for years now.

When I read what their data indicates, I get hopeful that there has been a big effort to change the old habits of the past. This does not mean that the Tour is 100% clean but it does hint that things are possibly changing for the better.

I think that when you see levels of 5.8 or 5.9 watts per kilo for over 20 minutes, it is believable and falls into historical norms. It depends on the VO2 Max, of course, but I believe that a rider like Contador has a lot of talent and is therefore capable of that.

After reading their article, all I could think of was why doesn't the sport embrace scientists like these two to help figure out a better way to control the doping that has destroyed the integrity of cycling? I am a big believer in science and in the end it is the science that will stand the test of time.

The sportsscientists.com guys were saying that in the 90s and early 2000s, most of the climbs were done at 6.2, 6.3 and even up to 6.7 watts per kilo; this is a sign of blood doping.

As regards the future of drug testing, a better term might be drug controlling, controlling the drugs that really boost an athlete's performance. That would be done by using a combination of blood profiling, wattage output, using a system like the SRM Power meter, and profiling of O2 intake.

If you combine the above with criminal consequences for drug distribution and with the possibility for a positive rider to plea bargain his return back to racing (though only if the positive rider names his or her supplier, and with a life ban for those who refuse to cooperate), you might be able to slowly take out those people who have been a large part of the doping problem.

By controlling the hormones and blood boosting drugs plus the transfusions, all that might be left will be drugs that might give the rider a minimal benefit. The placebo effect can have more power to change a rider's ability than some of the drugs on the list. Hopefully talent, focus and motivation could make up the small difference.

Every athlete has a genetic max. Yes, there are things that even the best sports scientists might not be able to explain or understand at this point but eventually, science will discover the answer to the unanswered. One thing that I believe to be true is that huge gains in wattage cannot occur in a short period of time in a sport that is as competitive as cycling. This sport has been highly competitive for over 40 years and I believe that the performances of riders like Merckx would still stand up to the best in today's cycling.

There is some very good data out there that indicates little improvement in aerobic capacity when you look back at many of the Tour de France champions from the pre-EPO era. Hopefully steps will continue to be taken to ensure that the Tour de France is won by someone with natural talent who shows that his performance is backed up by his natural ability.

One thing is for sure - Alberto Contador is very talented and I am happy to see some data that indicates his victory could be the result of natural ability.

Overall, to me it looked much more like the racing I knew. There was a lot more fatigue and exhaustion - the attacks go, but then they fade. There is this hesitation in the riders, too - when you feel the suffering, you are going to start racing more tactically. That is what I have seen in this Tour. It's very different to the Tours you saw five years ago - then, the flat stages had the bunch in one long line. And when people got to the climbs, they were being dropped, but there was no sign of suffering. This year looked a lot better.

Finishing up, there's been a lot of talk about the chain problem that Schleck had the other day, and the fact that Contador and a few other riders didn't wait. I don't think his victory should be overshadowed by what ifs, as this is part of racing.

I think if it's 30 or 40 kilometers out, then absolutely - wait. But if it's three kilometers from the finish of an uphill, it is different. When you are racing like Contador was, you are not sitting there lucid and aware [of everyone]. You are completely focused on what you are doing.
If you look at the replay, Vinokourov was between Contador and Schleck and I think that obscured his view. I think that Contador did finally see that Schleck had stopped suddenly, but I don't think that he had any idea that he then got off his bike and had to put his chain back on, being further delayed.

It is certainly tragic for Schleck as it was clear that day that he was strong, and perhaps stronger than Contador, but I don't think Contador's victory should have an asterisk next to it. I don't think that Contador took an advantage.

When I look at my own career, I flatted on the last climb going into Pau in 1990. I think it was the Marie Blanc. Chiappucci saw me, got his teammates and just took off and attacked. I think that's different, when you consciously see someone flat and then you take off.

Anyway, I didn't like it, but the fact is that it was part of the race and I had to deal with it. I was more annoyed that my team car wasn't there. We were two minutes down and if it wasn't for Gilbert Duclos Lassalle and, I think, Kvalsvoll, who were up front yet sat and waited for me, I would have definitely lost the Tour.

GREG LEMOND'S TAKE ON THE 2010 TOUR