Armstrong denies threat allegation

AUSTIN, Texas — Cycling legend Lance Armstrong denied that he threatened Greg LeMond, calling the allegation "ridiculous."

"Greg is just not in check with reality," Armstrong said Monday from New York City. "It's ridiculous. Greg is obsessed with foiling my career. I'm apoplectic when I read stuff like that."

LeMond, 45, was the first American to win the Tour de France, with victories in 1986, 1989 and 1990.

Armstrong, 34, came back from life-threatening testicular cancer that had spread to his lungs and brain to win the Tour de France seven times in a row — from 1999 through 2005 — before retiring last year.

LeMond told the French weekly edition of L'Equipe Dimanche that he had testified in a recent legal dispute involving Armstrong.

"He threatened my wife, my business, my life," LeMond told the newspaper. "His biggest threat consisted of saying he would find 10 people to testify that I took EPO. Of course, he didn't find a single one."

America's most successful cyclists have had a public feud since 2001, when LeMond said he was unhappy about Armstrong's association with Italian doctor Michele Ferrari, who had been linked to doping accusations but later was cleared by an appeals court.

Armstrong cut ties with Ferrari before last year's Tour de France.

Armstrong was involved in a legal battle over a $5 million performance bonus owed to him after winning the Tour in 2004. Dallas-based SCA Promotions had withheld the money under allegations Armstrong was doping, which he denied.

After three weeks of testimony from dozens of witnesses, a three-member arbitration panel ruled in Armstrong's favor and ordered the company to pay him $7.5 million.

Betsy Andreu, the wife of Armstrong's former teammate, Frankie Andreu, claimed Armstrong, days after he underwent brain surgery in 1996, told a doctor he had used the blood-boosting hormone EPO and other drugs. Frankie Andreu gave similar testimony before the panel.

Armstrong denied the claims made by the Andreus.

Note

• El Pais, a newspaper published in Madrid, Spain, reported American cyclist Tyler Hamilton, an Olympic gold medalist serving a two-year suspension for blood doping, was billed by a doctor for treatment that allegedly included blood transfusions and banned performance-enhancing drugs, including steroids, human growth hormone and EPO.

Hamilton, in a statement issued by his attorney, Howard Jacobs of Los Angeles, said, "I have not done what the article alleges."