Three years after being stripped of his Tour de France titles, Lance Armstrong made a controversial return to France on Thursday to participate in a charity ride on the Tour route.
Tour organizers had said he was being disrespectful by agreeing to join former soccer player Geoff Thomas’ One Day Ahead ride to raise money to fight leukemia. The philanthropists are taking each stage a day ahead of the regular Tour riders.
Others were unhappy as well.
The Bretagne-Séché team said via Twitter: “Ride your bike wherever you like, but why steal the media’s interest from our guys who have never cheated?”
Armstrong, 43, won seven consecutive Tours (1999-2005) but was stripped of those titles in 2012 for doping.
“I understand people’s reactions,” Armstrong said. “I understand there are still some hurt feelings, and that’s a process I’ll walk through for a long, long time.”
Armstrong responded to critics by saying, “We were all riding in an unfortunate era” in which doping was rampant.
“Why am I not welcome? Because I’m a doper?” he said. “If that were the rule, the caravan would almost be empty. I don’t mean the riders in this Tour, but in the press room, the commentary boxes, team cars. … No disrespect to those guys. We all rode in an unfortunate era. But, if you’re going to apply a standard, it has to be universal.”
In Thursday’s racing, Spain’s Joaquim Rodriguez won his second leg of the Tour de France, claiming Stage 12 for Team Katusha.
Britain’s Chris Froome retained the leader’s yellow jersey, two minutes and 52 seconds ahead of American Tejay van Garderen in the overall standings.
Rodriguez broke out with about 22 riders during a 195-kilometer ride through mountains from Lannemezan to the Plateau de Beille in the Pyrenees. Rodriguez pulled away from a handful of riders during the rainy final 15.8-kilometer climb, beating Denmark’s Jakob Fuglsang by one minute and 12 seconds and France’s Romain Bardet by 1:49.
Rodriguez also won Stage 3, giving him three stage wins in his Tour career (he won one in 2010 as well).
Froome finished 10th, holding off Nairo Quintana, Alberto Contador and reigning champion Vincenzo Nibali.
Stage 13 on Friday will be a 198.5-kilometer ride from Muret to Rodez.