Lance Armstrong on a recent visit to troubled Jan Ulrich. However, Armstrong does not believe, like David Millar does, that the problems former riders like Ulrich have experienced should be at the centre of the professional riders union.
David Millar Vs Lance Armstrong row over Worlds vote
Lance Armstrong and David Millar have traded verbal blows in the build up to the election of the next head of the riders’ union.
Millar has put himself forward in the election and wants to take the place of Gianni Bugno as president of the CPA union.
However, Armstrong has said Millar was the wrong person for the job. And Millar has hit back saying Lance Armstrong was only good for talking “shit” on his podcast.
Millar has suggested riders who retire need to be better looked after, citing the recent mental and drug-fuelled decline of Jan Ulrich.
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But Armstrong doesn’t agree that’s the biggest issue, saying few riders struggle the way Ulrich has.
He added if taking performance enhancing drugs resulted in drug addiction, a huge number of riders would be drug-addicted by now.
He also said it was pointless trying to reform the CPA, as Millar wants to. Armstrong, banned for cycling for life for doping, has said the union needs to be scrapped and riders need to start again.
"Millar is probably the last person that would come to mind for this role," Armstrong told the The Guardian newspaper.
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"I wouldn't even call it change because there's nothing really there to even consider changing.
“I'd propose creating a real union for the riders, not the window dressing that is the CPA."
Millar replied by saying: "Ladies and gentlemen, Mr Lance Armstrong - great at talking about it on a podcast, shit at actually doing it. On behalf of the peloton, thanks for the support."
David Millar, who served a two-year doping ban, has recently suggested the plight of Jan Ulrich spurred him on in deciding to contest the CPA election, which takes place at the Worlds in Innsbruck.
But Armstrong has implied the relationship between Ulrich’s cycling and current problems has been misunderstood by Millar.
He believed there were unique things about Ulrich and the likes of Marco Pantani and Frank Vandenbroucke – both deceased – that cannot easily be applied to all of cycling and many former pro cyclists.
“Those riders were all disgraced by their countries and the media while their countrymen, who weren't nearly as legendary as them, were given complete passes," said Armstrong.
"This can feel really hypocritical and unfair. Throw in some guys who don't have the mental strength to manage it all and that’s a recipe for disaster.
"The sample size of cyclists that took performance enhancing drugs is massive; in the tens of thousands.
“So if the tendency was to become an addict then we'd have hundreds if not thousands of addicts, which we don't.
“It's like the question I used to always get, ‘did drugs cause my cancer?’ It’s the same scenario - we'd have hundreds of guys with testicular cancer and we don't. We have two; Ivan Basso and me."
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