Lance Armstrong, testicular cancer survivor, founder of the Lance Armstrong Foundation (Livestrong) to support cancer research, and seven time winner of the Tour de France, was stripped of his victories earlier this year when he failed to contest World Anti-Doping Agency allegations of using performance enhancing drugs throughout his storied run of victories, where he and his cycling team allegedly ran "the most sophisticated, professionalized and successful doping program that sport has ever seen."
Still the subject of various unsettled lawsuits, this week, Armstrong has decided to sit down with Oprah Winfrey for a rare television interview on her network where he may finally admit to doping charges. I'm not really dazzled by the Lance Armstrong PR campaign as the express train takes a ride to redemption through Oprah territory, the reigning Queen of redemption, who could use the ratings, so is turning the interview into a 2-part episode over consecutive nights this Thursday and Friday.
Why doesn't Oprah bring retiring Welsh female cyclist
Nicole Cooke onto the show as a follow up to Lance, as she'd be received
like a crowning heroine, especially when she demonstrated her
commitment throughout her career NOT to take performance
enhancing drugs. Cooke, an Olympic Gold Medal Winner in 2008 in Beijing
and reigning World Champion in the same year (!), the first double
victory won in the same year by anyone, male or female, also winner of the
British Road Racing Championship 10 times, ironically retired from cycling at
the age of 29 on Monday, the same week as Lance's announcement, with a
blistering speech condemning both Lance and his former teammate Tyler Hamilton,
claiming they along with other drug cheats actually robbed her and other clean
riders of victories and prize money during her 11-year professional career, suggesting
UCI, cycling's world governing body, was more obsessed with protecting its own
image than promoting women's cycling, which is faltering due to a lack of
sponsorship after being rocked by the drug scandals.
Among Cooke's comments, "Tyler Hamilton will make more money
from his book describing how he cheated than I will make in all my years of
honest labor."
Cooke wrote a book about her enthusiasm for cycling, Cycle for Life, Cycle for
Life: Amazon.co.uk: Nicole Cooke: Books, which was published in October
2008.
Despite Lance's well overdue contrition, it sounds like
Oprah is interviewing the wrong hero.
Perhaps the best piece I've seen written about Lance's reason
to come clean now, Matt Seaton from The
Guardian:
Lance Armstrong and the cost-benefit analysis of confession
Don't be fooled: the only
thing choking up Lance is the lawsuits he has to settle. But he'll recoup
through Oprah's redemption
It is now absolutely clear that Lance Armstrong will
make some form of admission in Thursday's interview with Oprah Winfrey to the
dope-cheating that the Usada
report called "the great heist sport has ever seen". The public
relations strategy of drip-by-drip leaking has been expertly executed.
First, there was the New York Times' scoop about Armstrong's contacts with Usada to reduce his lifetime ban (disclosure: my sceptical response has proven 100% wrong). Then, we learned about the Oprah appearance, and it became ever harder to imagine what they would have to talk about for 90 minutes if Armstrong continued his career-long practice of stonewalling doping accusations and destroying those who spoke the truth. On Monday, the day his Oprah show was being recorded, Armstrong met with staff at the cancer charity he founded but recently resigned from, and rendered a tearful, "choked up" apology to his former Livestrong colleagues. And finally, we learn via CBS that Armstrong may even be willing to testify himself against fellow cyclists on doping charges.
In short, this now looks like a carefully choreographed, slow-release PR plan – likely managed by Armstrong's long-time agent Bill Stapleton – to perform a 180-degree turn on all previously held positions: belligerent denial, self-righteous indignation and bullying belittling of accusers. Instead, we have Lance Armstrong the penitent sinner: the weepy, choked-up prodigal son, who is finally coming clean and seeks redemption. As is well-established, an audience with Oprah achieves that almost instantaneously: I can see her right now, reaching out and taking his hand as he shakes with emotion and talks about the pain of living the false life we all made him lead.
And from redemption to rehabilitation. Armstrong will leverage his confession to the maximum to get his lifetime ban reduced, to four years, perhaps less. He'll be back before we know it: a slightly grizzled and more wrinkled version of himself, glad-handing and fist-bumping on the triathlon circuit, getting back to fundraising for the Livestrong Foundation, making faux-humble speeches for fat fees on the after-dinner circuit, mopping up some handy corporate sponsorships, reconnecting with his Washington power-broker contacts, and – older and wiser – maybe even running for office himself, as was once mooted.
But this only stacks up because, for the second half of his life, Armstrong needs not to be permanently exiled from American public life: to be a viable celebrity brand is all his future. The costs are significant: he will almost certainly have to settle with SCA Promotions, but they will probably take a lot less than the $11m that headlines their suit. The Sunday Times wants to recover $500,000 in damages, plus another $1m in costs; but they'll take less. But here's the thing: Armstrong's net worth is estimated to exceed $100m. These sums sting, but they don't really hurt him. And next to his post-rehabilitation earnings potential, they're chump change.
The only remaining obstacle is Floyd Landis' "whistleblower suit" under the False Claims Act. Also called a "qui tam" suit, most such civil legal actions fail – unless the US justice department chooses to join as a co-plaintiff, in which case the chances of success multiply dramatically. Landis' suit alleges that Lance Armstrong, in effect, defrauded US taxpayers who were, via the US Postal Service, the title sponsor of Armstrong's Tour de France-winning cycling teams from 1999-2003. That sponsorship was worth, reportedly, about $10m per year, making $50m in total.
If Armstrong was choking up and sobbing at his Livestrong Foundation encounter, it was far more likely because he had received word that senior officials in the justice department had recommended that the federal government join Landis' lawsuit, than for any show of true contrition. It must be a rattling prospect, even for Armstrong, that the US government would be coming after him, along with Landis, for potentially tens of millions of dollars – which, all the pre-publicity tells us to expect, Armstrong will confess he took under false pretences when he won by cheating.
As this latest turn in the Armstrong saga demonstrates, the disgraced cyclist is nothing if not well-advised: the combination of off-the-record briefing (Mark Fabiani, Bill Stapleton?) and official denial (attorney Tim Herman) was text-book stuff. No doubt, they have done their sums, too. So if Armstrong has already opened negotiations with Travis Tygart at Usada to get his ban reduced, then it's likely, as CBS reports, that there have been talks with the justice department about a deal to settle the qui tam suit.
The question of why the US justice department is piggybacking on Landis' suit now, when a US attorney in California inexplicably nixed a prosecution based on the federal grand jury investigation into precisely the same charges of fraud is now mainly of academic interest. In his book, The Secret Ride, Tyler Hamilton hinted strongly that Armstrong's political connections pulled strings. We do know that Armstrong lied repeatedly, even under oath, but thanks to the statute of limitations in one case (the suit against SCA in a 2005 lawsuit), and a wayward federal attorney in another, Armstrong has dodged a felony rap.
A criminal conviction, no; but civil damages he can afford. Armstrong will have done
his math, and worked out where the percentage lies: it's with confession. The
benefits outweigh the costs: he'll earn that rehabilitation, but he will come
out ahead.
The irony of this day is that it also saw the retirement of the greatest female cyclist of her generation: former world and Olympic champion Nicole Cooke. In her statement, of great dignity but justified anger, she directly pointed to the damage Lance Armstrong's dope-cheating did to her career, and to the entire women's sport, by killing its sponsorship. Please read it in full; it is a historic document. But this line says everything we need to hear about Lance Armstrong's confession:
I can't help thinking that the cheats
win on the way up and the way down
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Nicole Cooke's retirement statement in full
Introduction
Thank you all for coming here today to be with me and hear what I
am going to say. I am here to announce my retirement and in one sense that is a
simple thing to say and a simple story, but given that the sport I have given
my life to has become more 'fantastic' than any soap opera and it has just
given witness to the greatest ever sporting fraud, about which we get new and
wider revelations each day, I thought it appropriate to share with you some of
my experiences and, importantly some ideas for the future. And, understanding
that for the duration of my career the sport has been through the darkest
years, I want to both reflect and look ahead. I hope that in some small way, my
experiences can help.
I am going to recount one of the aspects of my past career that
few know about or understand, but about which I am most proud. I am going to
talk about the abuse of drugs in the sport of cycling and my experiences and
then I am going to talk about changes in the sport and look ahead at one
overlooked but absolutely vital aspect.
I am very happy with my career. I have many, many happy memories
over what has been my life's work since I was 12. I am now 29 so that is 17
years of my life that I have enjoyed and now I am bringing to a close. I have
won every race and more that I dreamed I could win. As a little girl of 12,
after beating all the boys at the Welsh cyclo cross championships, I stood in
front of the TV cameras and stated to the BBC reporter — when asked the
question -- what would you like do in cycling — I answered "I want to win
the Tour de France and win the Olympic Road Race" At 12 I dreamed like
every child. I hoped that some of my dreams could come true. You cannot imagine
how happy I am to be here with you now, with my dreams fulfilled. I am very
happy.
As Jon said – I have quite a collection of tee-shirts. Yellow
ones, Pink ones, ones with rainbow bands and ones with coloured rings on. As I
bring down the curtain on my career, I want to share with you something that I
take the greatest pride in, which now, we could not imagine not being here,
something now taken for granted.
Legacy
At the age of 12 one is unaware of the problems ahead. One
expects there to be an infrastructure for both boys and girls to develop and
demonstrate their talents; to nurture them. One does not expect that nothing is
available if you are a girl or that worse still, girls will be specifically
excluded, not allowed to compete. It is somewhat of a handicap trying to
demonstrate just how good you are on a bike when you are not allowed to ride.
There were no British Championship events for Girls. My father
and I worked very hard with British Cycling, formerly the British Cycling
Federation (BCF). We strived to convince them to hold events for girls and to
provide the necessary support to help them progress. We had to do a great deal
in so many ways. Cycling was, and continues to be, a male dominated sport and
"equality" from many points of view still has a very long way to go.
I want to describe just two events that proved to be turning
points and changed some things, so much for the better.
One of the turning points was at the British grass track
championships. It was the 800m British Championships for Women and Victoria
Pendleton took part, indeed her father helped to organize it. There were no
Youth (under 16) or Junior (under 18) races and, being only 14 at the time, I
was not allowed to compete with the Women. Furthermore, I was expressly
forbidden, by the BCF from riding in the senior women's Championship event. I
had received a 3 page letter telling me all the reasons why I could not
compete! However, there was a non-championship open event called an
"omnium" which included an 800m handicap on the same day, which I was
allowed to ride.
The first event that day for women was the British 800m
Championship which was won by a smashing girl, Helen McGregor. Later on in the
day the omnium started with the 800m handicap. As usual, in a handicap, the
British Champion was put off on the scratch mark with all other riders to start
ahead of the British Champion.
The handicapper knew that the BCF had officially instructed the
organisers to stop me riding the women's championships because I was too young,
and decided to intervene and allow history to run its course. I was put off on
scratch with Helen, while all the other riders, started in front of us.
Showdown time!
Worth far more than any medal was the applause of the crowd of
cycling enthusiasts as I crossed the line first. Those are memories that will
never be forgotten.
This was typical of many episodes with the BCF in that it must
have been embarrassing for the officials.
My father wrote to the official who had ruled I could not ride
and asked for Championships to be established for girls. The result was that
the following year, The BCF put on a superb set of British track championships.
The Federation spoiled us with jerseys, bouquets and medals just like the boys,
senior men and senior women. The BCF could not have done a better job in
response to that embarrassment.
Success.
From 1998 on, there have been Youth track events for girls and
later, as they saw them succeed, they put on Junior events as well.. Now all
the budding young stars like Jo Rowsall and Laura Trott can see an aspirational
pathway for the girls, just as there has been for the boys, that simply did not
exist when I started out on my career.
The same goes for Road Racing. When I started, the only 2 or 3
races per year available locally for under 16s, would feature myself as the
only girl, my younger brother and about 3 others. I have the most vivid memory
of 5 of us competing in a race in a howling gale and rain on Aberavon
beachfront up and down between some cones. My brother was 11 and about ½ the
size of the 6 foot 16 year old who won. This example highlights the immense
efforts of the people who put it on, despite the circumstances and sorry state
of cycling in Britain at the time.
There are many good folk in the cycling community who go to
immense efforts to do their very best. In that case it was Louise and Phil
Jones, absolute stalwarts of the cycling community.
Perhaps one of the best memories of my cycling career came when I
was a Youth age competitor. There was no British Championship Youth Road Race
for me to ride.
My Dad looked closely at the rules and found a bylaw that enabled
Youth age competitors to compete in Junior road events once they had attained
the age of 16, even though they were still Youth Category. He then found
another rule that said if there was no Junior event of equivalent standing,
which was the case here, entrants were automatically eligible to ride the
Senior equivalent event. Dad checked it all with the organiser of the Senior
British Women's Road Race Championships Jon Miles to see if it was all ok, and
it was. And so I rode my first British National Road race Championships having
just turned 16, by being a Youth riding up as a Junior and because there was no
Junior race I could compete with the Seniors! Winning that Senior title
astounded a lot of people and winning this race is one of my favourite
memories. Indeed, I still keep in touch with Jon who was very supportive at the
time and took the care and time to talk to the small school girl asking for
advice about the course.
Again the BCF and the lottery funded coaching structure was
embarrassed that I won and beat the funded riders on their expensive equipment
and resources, on my cheap bike. They had a British Cycling Team car and back
up. I had dad on his bike with a saddlebag of energy bars and drinks to hand
out!!
What they did not know was that in the weeks before, I had spent
the summer riding over the Grand Cols, including over the highest road ever
taken by the Tour — the Cime de La Bonnette at over 2700m. I had ridden over
this with mum, dad and my brother. I had put the hard work in and in my World,
hard work counts for an awful lot.
I cannot help but think that, as a consequence of my letters the
year before, and win that year; a Youth Circuit Race and a Junior category Road
Race Championship and Series were put in place for female riders by the BCF.
Again they could not have done a better job. They stepped up to
solving the problem I brought to light in a magnificent way.
Now I can attend local youth age events and see 45 riders, all
locally based and there are 18 or so girls competing in their own race. This is
a huge movement. I know Brad Wiggins and Mark Cavendish who have followed me
onto the continent have rightly had lots of publicity for their successes and
that has done an awful lot for the participation in cycling of both sexes.
However, previously, there were no events put on by the BCF for girls and no
support for girls. That all changed following my success as a Youth in the
British Senior Championships. Now the likes of Dani King and Laura Trott have a
shop window to display their exceptional talents. There is an infrastructure
that supports them and nurtures their talent. I am just as proud of my part in
bringing about those permanent changes as I am of being the first ever British
winner of the Olympic Road Race or a major tour.
The Dark Side
I left school. There was no UK Lottery funding available to me.
The 12 year old inside me with a dream of riding the Tour de France and
collecting a few tee-shirts, knew exactly what I had to do I had to get across
to the continent and join a team. Going there was great. It was one of my
dreams coming true for me.
Women's Road cycling was huge at that time; both the women's Tour de France and Giro (Tour of Italy) were 2 week events and looking like they would expand to 3 weeks to match the stage races for men. The World Cup visited more parts of the World than the men's and had 160 rider fields and I was now going to be part of it.
I feel really privileged. I have not had to work, I have been
able to travel the World and do something that really excites me and gives me
great pleasure. That I was able to satisfy that inner 12 year old's desire for
collecting coloured clothes was another delight!
I have ridden professionally on the Road from 2002 to 2012. Those
11 years of my adult life I have given to the sport have been the very best I
could give. It has been an incredibly turbulent time for the sport and it has
not come out of it well. So many competitors have abused the sport by taking
performance enhancing drugs and generated a travesty.
After the Festina tour in 1998 it was obvious to everyone who
followed the sport that drugs were endemic. Like many, I hoped I could win
races clean and that things would improve in that dark world as my career
progressed.
We were all told in 1999 that testing was now improved and the
show had been cleaned up. After all we now had a new, brighter than bright,
clean tour Champion in Lance.
I did not have long to wait before encountering suspicious
circumstances. In the fridge [in a team house] were various bottles and vials
with diaphragms on top for extracting the contents via syringes. I rang dad and
asked what I should do. We chatted it through and came to the conclusion that
even condoning the presence of 'medicines' in the house I was staying, could
lead to pressure being put on me, or in the worst case, if there was a raid on
the house, it was highly unlikely that any of the "professionals " I
was sharing the house with were going to say "it's a fair cop guv, That
gear is all mine." So, I emptied the fridge and put the lot out in the
front garden and [said] either it went or I went. It went.
I have had days where temptation to start onto the slippery slope
was brought in front of me. [In one race] I was asked what
"medicines" I would like to take to help me, and was reminded that
the team had certain expectations of me during the race and I was not living up
to them with my performance over the last couple of stages. I said I would do
my best until I had to drop out of the race, but I was not taking anything.
Pressure was put on me but I was determined, and fortunate. I had
a very good team-mate who was in a similar predicament and she took the same
stance I did. Team-mates that say "NO" are priceless. I would have
been very naive to think that I would not encounter moments, like this. I am
appalled that so many men bleat on about the fact that the pressures were too
great. Too great for what? This is not doing 71 mph on the motorway when the
legal limit is 70. This is stealing somebody else's livelihood. It is theft
just as much as putting your hand in a purse or wallet and taking money is
theft. Theft has gone on since the dawn of time but because somebody, somewhere
else, does it, does not mean it is right for you to do it. There can be no
excuse.
In all this furore, the women's scene has been hit twice.
Every scandal on the men's side has caused sponsors to leave on
the Women's side. And with such thin budgets, the losses have a greater
relative impact on what survives. In areas where there was unique female
development and growth, such as in Canada, which hosted a major Tour, a World
Cup and the World Championships, all geared to supporting their number one
rider — Genevieve Jeanson, there has been calamity. Perhaps Jeanson will not be
a name familiar to you. She was the Canadian superstar, a national icon. She
never tested positive. She missed a drugs test when she beat me and received a
meaningless fine as a consequence. She exceeded the 50% Hematocrit level and
the authorities acted in line with their legislation and imposed a "health
rest" on her.
Second fiddle to Jeanson during this time in Canada was a rider
with morals called Lyne Bessette. Nobody can give back to Lyne Bessette or I
the wins Jeanson stole from us. Throughout her career Jeanson repeatedly lied,
just like Lance and yet now, she confesses that she had been on an extensive
doping program since she was 16. The full story only came out, via quality
investigative journalism.
Jeanson states, like all the others, she is "repentant"
and all that is behind her. All these "born again" champions of a
clean sport. They could be more accurately described as criminals who stole
other's livelihoods who are only ever genuinely sorry about one thing — they
are very sorry they were caught.
I do despair that the sport will ever clean itself up when the
rewards of stealing are greater than riding clean. If that remains the case,
the temptation for those with no morals will always be too great. Lyne summed
it up quite nicely with a statement that won her few plaudits but was entirely
right. I can't help thinking that the cheats win on the way up and the way
down.
Tyler Hamilton will make more money from his book describing how
he cheated than Bessette or I will make in all our years of our honest labour.
The situation requires the very basics of morality. Please don't reward people
like Hamilton with money. That is the last thing he needs. Donate his literary
prize and subsequent earnings from such publications to a charity. There are
many places infinitely more deserving than the filthy hands of Hamilton. I am
happy to offer some ideas!
It is obvious that this issue is wider than the remit of the
sporting governing bodies. It is no modest "sporting fraud". Wider
society has to act.
I have ridden through some of the darkest days of the sport in
terms of corruption by the cheats and liars. I cannot change the era or time
that I am born into. I am very proud that I have met the temptations head on
and have not wavered in my honesty or sold my ideals. I have always ridden true
to myself and placed my morals beyond a need to win. I have ridden clean
throughout my career. In a sport so tainted, this has generated many negative
consequences. From the single example above; my team-mate and myself not
getting paid for the rest of the year, after the Tour de France, being simple
evidence. I am so very fortunate to have been able to have won clean.
Perhaps a major factor is that the races are short – only 3 hours
long! This is perhaps a hard and unpopular fact that the male side may need to
embrace if it is genuine about wanting to clean itself up.
I have been robbed by drug cheats, but I am fortunate, I am here
before you with more in my basket than the 12 year old dreamed of. But for many
genuine people out there who do ride clean; people with morals, many of these
people have had to leave the sport with nothing after a lifetime of hard work —
some going through horrific financial turmoil. When Lance "cries" on
Oprah later this week and she passes him a tissue, spare a thought for all of
those genuine people who walked away with no reward – just shattered dreams.
Each one of them is worth a thousand Lances.
Protection for women
riders
Whilst the UCI have spent the past 10 years trying to defend the
indefensible Armstrong position, with time wasting actions such as suing Paul
Kimmage for libel after Kimmage dared to bring their "good name" into
disrepute; whilst they have been so engrossed trying to find receipts for the
equipment they bought after Lance made donations to them and suing Floyd Landis
after he blew the whistle and holding press conferences calling Landis a liar.
Whilst they have been so busy with all these "priorities", the
women's road sport, that looked so promising in 2002 when I turned
professional, has crumbled.
There are so many ways in which the UCI could support the sport
for women, but instead they have acted, regardless of their intent, in a way
that has caused the sport to lose events. Gone are the women's Milan San Remo,
the Amstel Gold Race, Tour de L'Aude, Tour Midi Pyrenees, and Tour Castel de
Leon. No HP tour in America.
No Tours in Australia, New Zealand or Canada. Instead of a
two-week Tour de France we have nothing. Today, in January, the major race in
the women's calendar this year, the one from which I have the pink T-shirt, has
no organiser and no route.
With sponsors and support lost, the riders in the sport are
exposed and vulnerable in so many ways. Many riders receive just token reward
or rewards paid out in a capricious and unfair way. Some receive nothing. Then
for those of us fortunate to be towards the top of the spectrum, those with a
contract — too often, that piece of paper given to us is a joke. In 11 years of
professional riding I have had to take four teams to court to achieve
settlement against a straightforward contract to get my wages owed to me. I
have won every time, but this is incredibly abrasive and exhausting in so many
ways.
This year, as I prepared for the defence of my Olympic title, I
received no wages after March. Yes, there is a taboo about revealing what
really goes on. Riders move teams. Teams find new riders trying to make a start
in cycling with no idea of what is out there or what tricks the managers can
get up to. Tales go round that certain riders are "difficult". I
certainly was. The stories are invented. Riders are labeled as uncooperative,
selfish, not team players – it must be the case, rider A has been in the sport
four years and has moved teams each year.
Novices and those new to the sport are encouraged to ride against
certain riders.
At the end of this season I visited an erstwhile team-mate who
left Europe halfway through the season because her wages had not been paid. She
has a daughter. How is she meant to pay for food for herself and her girl?
To employ a "cleaner" or a youngster to wash up at a
bar, an employer must pay a minimum wage. The UCI Road Commission headed by
British Cycling's Brian Cookson has stated that whilst a minimum wage is
required for all male professionals, female riders do not deserve this. Only as
recently as this October the commission rejected this simple request. There are
two aspects of this case. One is straightforward and moral.
Society cannot continue to leave all those girls in so vulnerable
a position. A simple bar placed at the entry point for the sport would dispel
all manner of problems. Are these girls that race for a living an underclass?
They are somehow a sub-race not worthy of the most basic protection we afford
the rest of our citizens in whatever employment they find themselves. Please
understand, this is not about money, the main driver is the protection that
will come from the placement of an absolute starting point for payment. The
second factor is the one that demolishes the argument that it is sport; surely
they are doing it for fun? Well what makes it different for men then? Why is
there a minimum wage put in place for male riders? It protects them from being
taken advantage of.
Why are women not worthy of that same protection?
Women's cycling has declined through each year of my career. It
is not a sustainable business model. Yes new races have been added to the
calendar but loss exceeds growth. Look at the Giro – whilst team Sky plot their
team for both the Tour and the Giro, the girls don't even know what part of
Italy the race will take place in! This is not a time for "tweaking"
or "minor correction". Whilst so much time, energy and resource has
been spent defending and analysing the indefensible, from a woman's perspective,
Rome has quietly burned down. Radical and significant change is needed and the
enforcement of a minimum wage is the foundation stone. I know teams will go out
of existence as a result. The first hand experiences of many of those people I
value and respect, along with my own experiences, mean that the loss of many of
these teams will not be mourned. There will be then proper reward and proper
cognisance of those that try and do it right. The good teams left will rightly
be celebrated. And that is how it should be.
Summary
So, my roller coaster of a cycling career has come to an end. I
have worked very, very hard, putting in many, many thousands of miles in all
kinds of weathers. I have had many head winds from many places that you would
not expect. But I have an awful lot of people around me who supported me
through thick and thin. Many have helped me but a few special names are Andy
Walser, Rod Jaques, Chris Price and the surgeon Jonathon Webb who operated on
my knees. Also, from the early days, Ron Dowling, Brian Rourke and Cliff
Poulton, and two no longer with us — Geoff Greenfield and Walter Rixon.
I have enjoyed the adrenaline of competition, that feeling of
fear going in to the closing stages of races, never giving up and getting every
last bit of energy out before the finish line. I have loved the thrill of the
tactics and cunning unfolding on the road and the elation of winning. I have
had great battles with many different riders over the years and I also look
fondly on the races I did not win as they often served as harsh lessons to me
and helped me improve.
I really do treasure the letter the official wrote to me after
winning the Olympic Road Race, the same official who blocked my path when I was
14 at the grass track. He and I greet each other very warmly each time we meet
and I am very fond of him. He was magnanimous enough to admit his error.
British Cycling and the scene in Britain is changed out of all recognition to
that which lay ahead of me as a 12 year old, dreaming of riding the great
climbs and perhaps getting a coloured T-shirt or two along the way. I will take
pride in every Dani King, Laura Trott or Jo Rowsall that achieves a medal. They
have a pathway and support system that was not available before that dreaming
12-year-old helped cause permanent change. I upset many people. I am so glad I
did in this respect I have ridden through the time of Lance and all the
dreadful tragedy that the abuses surrounding him have brought to my sport. I
have faced up to the temptations, but have always remained true to the
12-year-old inside me. Yes I have suffered as a result, in many ways, but so
what, I am not alone, I am one representative of that group, those who do it
right.
And as I check out, that 12-year-old has a basket of T-shirts; a collection
that brings the biggest smile to her face.
My time in the sport is finished. I hope I will look on in 10
years' time and see a vibrant and healthy women's road scene. The key to that
will be that the female athletes are treated with respect. Just like others in
our society and their male counterparts, I hope they have the protection of a
minimum wage.
In a drawer I keep two sets of medals that remain so dear to me.
Alongside the Olympic road race and World Championship road race medals, the
first ever pair won in the same year together, a unique first for anyone, male
or female. Alongside them, four other gold medals. The first ever ones awarded
at the first ever British youth Girls track championships. I am just as proud
of each of those sets. I really hope I have helped create change.
Thank you all for coming here today and listening to my account.
I leave the sport and hope that during my time in it I have helped make it a
better place. I hope that by bringing a wider understanding to some of the
issues that face the sport it will create change so that the 12-year-olds
dreaming today can have a rewarding future within it. I look forward to the
exciting next chapter of my life and I thank you all for your support during
the last one. Thank you.
