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The Astounding Financial Cost of Lance Armstrong’s Downfall (Challenges, France)


Aug 27, 2012 by

Although Lance Armstrong says he’s through with the whole issue of whether he used performance enhancing drugs to win the Tour de France seven times, according to reporter Laure-Emmanuelle Husson of the French business journal Challenges, Armstrong’s troubles may have only just begun. French sport, doping and legal experts say Armstrong may have to repay all the money he has won, and not only for his Tour de France victories, but for all of the victories from the beginning of his cycling career.

For France’s Challenges, Laure-Emmanuelle Husson piece starts out this way:

“It’s his choice, his position, but Lance Armstrong risks losing a lot more than he thinks – and not only his seven Tour de France victories.” Professor and French anti-doping specialist Jean-Pierre de Mondenard, interviewed by cyclisme.actu.fr, knows that the choice of the seven-time winner of the Tour de France is a risky one. By deciding not to contest charges made by the USADA (the United States Anti-Doping Agency), which intends to strip him of his titles from the Grande Boucle and ban him from sport competitions for life, Lance Armstrong could lose a great sum of money.

 

In fact, the American cyclist will have to repay all monies received for his victories in the Tour (€2.5 million or $3.2 million) and also bonuses (€8,000 for every stage won and €350 for every day he wore the yellow jersey, plus bonuses for the mountain passes [included in the Tour].

 

“Financially, he risks quickly finding himself out on the street. Because they are going to ask him for all the money he received from his Tour victories, and surely from the other races. He is going to have to repay almost all of the winnings he took in during his entire career. And don’t forget about the insurance policies and the astronomical sums of money paid to him every time he won the Tour de France. He’s going to have to repay all this too, because I don’t believe the insurance companies will leave him alone,” predicts Professor de Mondenard. And it wasn’t only Lance Armstrong that received these earnings, because the tradition in cycling is that the winner shares his earnings with all members of his team.

READ ON IN ENGLISH OR FRENCH AT WORLDMEETS.US, your most trusted translator and aggregator of foreign news and views about our nation.

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3 Comments

  1. RP
    August 27, 2012 | 10:58 am

    First, if this were to happen, could he not find a good attorney to file bankruptcy for him to protect what he has and eliminate the debt from a foreign country or foreign agency. And second, how is a foreign agency going to get money back from someone in America if they do not repay the winnings?

    I would think LA has already been advised as to this possibility and found that not fighting the USADA provided for a less expensive outcome than continuing to fight the unending fight over juicing or not juicing.

  2. StockBoyLA
    August 27, 2012 | 12:34 pm

    RP, good questions I hadn’t thought of.

    I was thinking that Lance was paid for commercials. I would imagine he would be able to keep that money… after all the commercials served their purpose. So he would still have some money.

    If he does have to return all the money (whether he actually does so or not) would send a strong signal to everyone that doping/juicing will catch up with you sooner or later, and that it’s not worth it.

  3. STinMN
    August 27, 2012 | 1:36 pm

    I know most of you do not follow cycling, I’ve seen the dismissive “it’s just cycling” comment at least once, but the sport of cycling has taken doping more seriously than any other professional sport. Pro cyclist know that they can be tested anytime anywhere, and have cleaned up their act. Forcing LA to return all wins would be widely seen in the cycling world as further proof that the LA haters are just being vindictive. And it is far from determined result as far as the UCI (international cycling’s governing body) and the Tour de France organizers are concerned. Neither has accepted USADA’s findings and want to examine their evidence further, something the USADA has yet to agree to.

    I’ll accept that the USADA is doing its job when they start to overturn Superbowl and World Series results from teams with players that used PEDs. They shouldn’t have too many issues overturn results back to the 1900, there are plenty of photos of baseball players smoking during the World Series(nicotine is considered a PED.) I would fully expect that they or their decendents would be require to repay all winings. Until that happens the USADA has engaged in nothing more than a LA witch hunt.