Ex-USADA chief says Armstrong rep offered donation

LOS ANGELES (AFP) –

Lance Armstrong, pictured in Montereau-Fault-Yonne, prior to the start of the 20th stage of the 91st Tour de France cycling race, on July 25, 2004. Former US Anti-Doping Agency chief Terry Madden told US media that Armstrong did offer USADA a donation in 2004, contrary to the shamed cyclist’s claim in a confessional TV interview.

Former US Anti-Doping Agency chief Terry Madden told US media that Lance Armstrong did offer USADA a donation in 2004, contrary to the shamed cyclist’s claim in a confessional TV interview.

Armstrong’s vehement denial of the claim made by current USADA chief executive Travis Tygart, came in the second installment of his pre-recorded interview with talk-show host Oprah Winfrey, which aired on Friday.

“This is another personal attack on Travis Tygart and the United States Anti-Doping Agency,” Madden, chief executive of the agency from 2000-2007, told the New York Daily News.

Tygart said in an interview with Showtime television’s “60 Minutes Sports” last week that an Armstrong representative called the agency in 2004 and offered a $250,000 “donation”.

A timeline of events from June 2012 to Lance Armstrong’s admission of doping in an interview with Oprah Winfrey.

“That is not true,” Armstrong told Winfrey, telling her he “asked around” among his camp to see if someone had made the offer without his knowledge.

“That’s a lot of money,” Armstrong said. “I would know.”

But Madden, who hasn’t commented publicly on doping matters since his tenure at USADA ended, told both ESPN.com and the Daily News that he remembered the day that Tygart, then USADA’s general counsel, received the call.

“Travis received a telephone call from one of Lance’s closest representatives, who offered to make a contribution to USADA,” Madden told the Daily News.

He said Tygart reported the call to him, and “within 30 seconds” Madden told Tygart to call back and reject the offer, since a donation from a person who could be drug-tested by the agency would be improper.

A similar six-figure donation by Armstrong to the International Cycling Union (UCI) has become a point of contention in the governing body’s handling of Armstrong, with suggestions it was a pay-off.

Lance Armstrong, pictured on July 11, 2010, during the Tour de France. Former US Anti-Doping Agency chief Terry Madden told US media on Saturday that Armstrong did offer USADA a donation in 2004, contrary to the shamed cyclist’s claim in a confessional TV interview.

Madden declined to identify the person who made the phone call to Tygart, saying he couldn’t because of the US federal whistleblower lawsuit filed by cyclist Floyd Landis that names Armstrong and several business associates as defendants.

That’s not the only legal action Armstrong is facing.

The Sunday Times is suing Armstrong for more than £1 million ($1.6 million, 1.2 million euros) over a libel payment made to him in 2006.

SCA Promotions, a Texas insurance company that paid bonuses to Armstrong for multiple Tour de France titles, has threatened to sue to get that money back.

The firm tried to withhold payment because of doping allegations against Armstrong then, but the cyclist sued and won.

The first installment of Armstrong’s interview with Winfrey included the American’s first public admission — after years of vehement denials — that he used an array of performance enhancing drugs in winning a record seven Tour de France titles from 1999-2005.

The belated admission comes three months after USADA issued a devastating 1,000-page report detailing the doping program in Armstrong’s US Postal Service team, stripping him of his Tour titles and banning him for life from competition.

Cycling Australia president Klaus Mueller has launched a stinging attack on Armstrong, labelling the self-confessed drug cheat ‘delusional’ following his TV interview.

“It was the most phoney, half-hearted, appalling confession from a bloke who has been so reprehensible in his conduct,” Mueller told News Limited newspapers on Sunday.

Mueller, a Melbourne barrister who argues that doping should be a criminal offence, said Armstrong’s confession was designed to protect his wealth.