Lance Armstrong makes his way to the start
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Tour Down Under director: It’s a pretty serious kick in the guts
Tour Down Under’s race director Mike Turtur had previously stated there were “no regrets” regarding the reported multi-million dollar appearance fee paid to Lance Armstrong in 2009, 2010 and 2011 however, the past weeks and yesterday’s decision by the UCI to hand Armstrong a lifetime ban has perhaps shifted his opinion of the former Tour de France winner.
“It’s a pretty serious kick in the guts,” Turtur told Cyclingnews. “It’s maybe the biggest one I’ve had during my time in cycling. It’s not only Armstrong, it’s a host of others too that were part of it.”
“There would be many race directors throughout the world who would be feeling a level of disappointment and being duped about his participation in the Tour de France – a whole host of races.
Turtur adds that the Tour Down Under benefited from having Armstrong at the opening WorldTour round of the season and that despite any criticism he has always acted in the best interest of the race. However, in light of the information delivered in the past weeks, things could have been very different.
“At that time when he came to the race here it was a situation that presented itself where many people thought would benefit. It turned out that way but with the benefit of hindsight obviously if the same events were to happen at that time this would not have happened. These events and the information wasn’t available. You have to be fair in your analysis of that situation and at that time when all this happened there wasn’t the same information available to make a judgement.”
Asked if race attendance would be impacted due to the decision by the UCI to ban Armstrong for life and strip him of his Tour de France wins, Turtur replied “No, I don’t. I think people will see that we acted in the best interest of the race all the time and that is; professionally, respecting the rules
To read the whole story, visit here: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/cyclingnews/news/~3/Yfn9hGxA9uc/story01.htm
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