Fallen star’s team-mates‘obligated’ to reveal truth

Among Lance Armstrong’s former team-mates who gave sworn testimony against him were Michael Barry and George Hincapie and both released statements last night.

The other team-mates who gave evidence against Armstrong were Frankie Andreu, Tom Danielson, Tyler Hamilton, Levi Leipheimer, Stephen Swart, Christian Vande Velde, Jonathan Vaughters and David Zabriskie.

And most, to their credit, were quick to release statements last night.

Barry, who rode for the US Postal Service team from 2002 to ’06, said on his website: “After being encouraged by the team, pressured to perform and pushed to my physical limits I crossed a line I promised myself and others I would not: I doped.

“It was a decision I deeply regret. It caused me sleepless nights, took the fun out of cycling and racing, and tainted the success I achieved at the time. This was not how I wanted to live or race.”

Barry said he never doped again from the summer of 2006 and, although he did not confess to his past, became an advocate of clean cycling and the need for change.

He added: “I apologise to those I deceived. I will accept my suspension and any other consequences. I will work hard to regain people’s trust.”

American Hincapie, 39, was at the USPS team for 10 years from 1997 to 2007 and was one of Armstrong’s most trusted domestiques, or ‘servants’. He said: “Because of my love for the sport, the contributions I feel I have made to it, and the amount the sport of cycling has given to me over the years, it is extremely difficult today to acknowledge that during a part of my career I used banned substances,” he said on his website.

“Early in my professional career, it became clear to me that, given the widespread use of performance enhancing drugs by cyclists at the top of the profession, it was not possible to compete at the highest level without them. I deeply regret that choice and sincerely apologise to my family, team-mates and fans.

“Quietly, and in the way I know best, I have been trying to rectify that decision.”

Hincapie said he had competed clean for the past six years and during that time had worked hard to rid the sport of drugs.

“During this time, I continued to successfully compete at the highest level of cycling while mentoring young professional riders on the right choices to make to ensure that the culture of cycling had changed,” he said.

“About two years ago, I was approached by US Federal investigators, and more recently by USADA [US Anti-Doping Agency], and asked to tell of my personal experience in these matters. I would have been much more comfortable talking only about myself, but understood that I was obligated to tell the truth about everything I knew. So that is what I did.”