Lance Armstrong may be banned from cycling for life due to his doping, but he's still publishing a cycling podcast, The Move, and in his Giro d'Italia review he outlined his first ever meeting with Sean Kelly.
Armstrong and his co-hosts began discussing the practice of riders doing deals in races; agreeing to pay breakaway companions in return for being gifted a victory.
The American, stripped of his seven Tour wins, said when he first met Kelly - by chance, as a new pro aged 20 years back in 1992 - the first thing the Irishman said to him was to ask what currency he was paid in for throwing a race the previous week.
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Armstrong explained that, the week before the chance encounter, he had regained his form and was in the breakaway at GP Zurich, a World Cup race. He was clear in a three-man move with Russian Viatcheslav Ekimov (Panasonic Sportlife) and Belgian Jan Nevens (Lotto Mavic) and said he was thinking to himself 'dude, I think I might take these guys'.
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"And they start just trading attacks on me and Och (Armstrong's Motorola DS Jim Ochowicz) is out of the race because he's crashed the car. So Peter Post (Panasonic DS) and (Jean-Luc) Vandenbroucke (Lotto Mavic DS) are back there chatting and I'm saying 'what's going on?'" he added, implying the other two riders' teams were doing a deal behind his back.
"Finally I get sick of covering the attacks and Eki goes and he's gone so he wins GP Zurich and I get 2nd. And the next race I go to…. and I've never met Sean Kelly, I was a young kid. And Sean Kelly… that's like stepping into an elevator with (legendary quarterback) Brett Favre or something
"So the elevator doors open and there's f***ing Sean Kelly standing there. He's the only guy in the elevator and I'm alone and I'm like 'oh no, what do I say?' And I go 'Hi Sean, I'm Lance'. And the door closes. And he goes 'so, did they pay you in Rubles or Dollars?' And I'm saying 'I didn't get shit and this guy is calling me out'."
