Frankie Andreu, a former team-mate of Lance Armstrong who helped lift the lid on the disgraced cyclist’s use of performance-enhancing drugs, was the star guest at the Bermuda Bicycle Association’s 50th anniversary banquet.

At the Royal Hamilton Amateur Dinghy Club on Saturday night, Andreu regaled guests with stories of his professional career, during which he finished fourth in the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta and competed nine times in the Tour de France, helping Armstrong to his first two victories in the storied race.

However, Andreu’s achievements in the saddle are overshadowed by the role he played in Armstrong’s downfall. In 2006, Andreu admitted to The New York Times that he had taken erythropoietin to help prepare for the 1999 Tour de France, Armstrong’s breakthrough race.

A year earlier, Andreu and his wife, Betsy, testified that Armstrong had told cancer doctors in their presence that he had doped with EPO, growth hormone, and steroids. In 2012, they testified to the United States Anti-Doping Agency, and a year later Armstrong admitted to using performance-enhancing drugs, including in all seven of his Tour victories.

Speaking to The Royal Gazette in a frank interview more than a decade later, Andreu does not resent that if you google his name, the first few hundred pages deal only with the Armstrong situation rather than his own achievements.

“That was part of me being a cyclist; you can’t separate it,” Andreu said.

“It doesn’t bother me, and when they do...

Read Full Story: https://news.google.com/rss/articles/CBMiuwFBVV95cUxOYXFpX1NPOWZVSHN3UngxNFQy...