Brian Smith: I told Lance I'd never take drugs... two weeks later I was sacked
By Brian Smith
PUBLISHED:00:10, 12 October 2012| UPDATED:00:10, 12 October 2012
It was the autumn of 1994 and I had joined Lance Armstrong on a training ride on the banks of Lake Como.
We had enjoyed a successful season as colleagues on the Motorola team. I was certainly feeling I’d done pretty well in my first year there. I’d won the British title and just completed my first grand tour at the Giro d’Italia. I’d also won the first European race of the season for Motorola. I’d made a contribution. Proved myself to be a good, solid pro.
But Lance wasn’t happy. He’d won the world road race title the previous year but was getting beaten. There were guys in the peloton he just couldn’t live with and what you have to understand about Lance is that he is a winner. He has to win and he could not handle losing.
That year Evgeni Berzin won the Giro and Marco Pantani emerged on the scene, winning a couple of stages.
So, as we’re riding side by side, the conversation turns to the subject of performance-enhancing drugs. He wants to know what I think. Did I think everyone was on them? Was the only way to beat them to join them? Would I take them?
My dad was a Scottish international cyclist and before I turned pro he sat me down and made me promise that I would never fall into that world, that I would never take drugs.
I told Lance the story and told him I could never let down my dad. I’d rather fail as a cyclist than do that. We rode on.
Two weeks later, I was called to a meeting with Jim Ochowicz, who played a big part in Lance’s career and at the time was Motorola team manager. Jim told me I would not be getting a new contract for the following season. I was out.
I will never know what Lance was getting at that day. Was he seeing if I would be part of his ‘team’ or was I simply one of a number of people he was sounding out?
But I have often wondered if saying yes to drugs on that ride would have made all the difference. Would he have kept me on the team? Would I have had a different career? Would I have been more successful, in terms of results as well as financially? I certainly don’t think it helped me, saying no to Lance that day.
In David Walsh’s book, L.A. Confidentiel, he had a testimony from Steven Swart, who is a good friend and was still on the Motorola team in 1995. He claimed in Walsh’s book that the doping started at Motorola in 1995 and he was ostracised by the sport as a result. The power of Lance.
I made a living out of cycling and continue to do so. I’m the general manager of the Endura Racing team and I work as a commentator for Eurosport, ITV and Sky. I also got to ride in the Atlanta Olympics.
But my one great regret is that I never rode the Tour de France. I never raced in the biggest sporting event in the world.
I always knew riders were doping. But even I didn’t realise the full extent of the cheating that has been exposed by the astonishing evidence which USADA has published.
I feel I was cheated out of a ride on the tour and cheated out of a better living — and I’m no different to any rider at that time who took the decision not to dope and was not as successful as they should have been as a result.
As Lance was coming into the sport, cycling was starting to boom. There was serious money to be made and all those who went with Lance made serious money.
I’ve read the testimonies of his 11 team-mates and that’s fine. But they also made serious money and I don’t see any of them handing it back. I don’t see any of them handing back their big houses.
Christian Vande Velde has admitted to cheating as part of Lance’s gang but I don’t see him losing the big house on the golf course in Girona. These people made a lot of money cheating the sport and cheating people out of it.
A few years ago I set up the Braveheart Foundation and we support young Scottish cyclists financially. I have sometimes questioned whether I’m doing the right thing, encouraging young kids to go into cycling when it could end with drug abuse. I’ve wondered how I might feel if my two boys want to go into professional cycling.
But there are positives to come from all of this and we have a much cleaner sport today. I have no doubt that, in Bradley Wiggins, we have a clean Tour de France champion.
But on the road to this point there have been casualties. For me, it will always go back to that bike ride in Como.
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