Lance Armstrong was paid a fee of $1 million US dollars
for appearing at the Tour Down Under when he came back to cycling.
The American, since exposed as a doper for years, also
had his first class travel to Australia paid for.
His hotel bill was also footed and he received further
monies to cover his expenses when he was in Australia.
All of the money was paid by the South Australia
government as it funded the race. The fees were paid to Armstrong for his
appearance at the race in 2009.
However, while he also rode the event over the following two years, his fees for those appearances have not been revealed yet.
In the 2009 edition of the Tour Down Under, Lance Armstrong didn't trouble the front of the race. His best result was 23rd on the Willunga Hill stage and he was 29th overall.
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The Texan went on to ride the Tour de France later that year, finishing in 3rd place, a result he has been stripped of due to his doping.
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South Australia treasurer Rob Lucas raised the issue of
the fee repeatedly, making something of a political issue of it.
He wanted the fee made public as he was critical of the
money being paid and no effort being made to secure its return.
And now that he is in office and a 10-year
confidentiality period has expired, the fee has been revealed for the first
time.
“We can reveal to South Australians what Labor MPs have
been happily sitting on for a decade; that they forked out a staggering $1
million US on behalf of taxpayers,” he said.
Lucas added the Government at the time paid the money “to
an athlete who was subsequently exposed as the ringleader of the world’s most
sophisticated doping program”.
With the information released, Lucas was strongly
critical of the sheer size of the fee.
“By anyone’s standards, it’s an astonishing amount of
money to pay one man for a six-day race, not to mention the extra sweeteners on
the side,” he said.
Those extras, he said, included “first class airfares for
two, hotel accommodation, meals... And this is just the tip of the iceberg.”
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