Tinkoff Saxo directeur sportif Sean Yates has spoken to the BBC about he feels that Lance Armstrong was unfairly hunted down and stripped of his seven Tour de France titles.
Yates raced with Armstrong on the Motorola team in the early 90s and subsequently was manager on the Discovery and Astana teams which the Texan raced with.
Yates told the BBC, “Lance was a big figure that they hunted down, along with others obviously, and he took the brunt of the publicity, the brunt of the blame, unfairly in my opinion. Ultimately, people will make up their own minds somewhere down the road but that may be few years to come yet.”
Armstrong was stripped of his record seven Tour de France titles and banned from sport for life by the USADA in August 2012. Yates told BBC Radio 5 Live that he saw nothing suspicious during his six years working alongside the American. Yates was also previously a directeur sportif with Team Sky, but left at the end of 2012. The Daily Telegraph reported that he left following on from an interview with Team Sky’s general manager, Dave Brailsford, where he admitted an involvement in doping.
You can listen to the interview with Yates here:
http://www.bbc.com/sport/0/cycling/31454928
