UCI objects to former Armstrong manager Bruyneel’s presence at Tour de France

MONT VENTOUX, France (AP) – The International Cycling Union has objected to the presence of Johan Bruyneel, Lance Armstrong’s former team manager, in staff areas of the Tour de France.

The UCI said Tuesday it had asked race organizers whether they had given Bruyneel accreditation to appear at the Tour’s start village before Stage 12 in Auch last week when he took part in a TV program for the Flemish-language Belgian channel VRT1.

“Bruyneel is banned for life from taking part in any activity related to cycling,” the UCI said in a statement, noting the Belgian national’s sanction by the Court of Arbitration for Sport “for anti-doping rules violations when he worked with the U.S. Postal Service Pro Cycling Team and the Discovery Channel Pro Cycling Team.”

Bruyneel was initially banned for 10 years by the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency in 2014 for his role in doping programs that helped Armstrong to seven Tour de France titles between 1999-05 and provided other riders with illegal performance boosts, but that sanction was extended to a lifetime ban by CAS in 2018 after an appeal by the World Anti-Doping Agency.

“While he is free to attend a cycling event registered on the UCI International Calendar – such as the Tour de France – as a regular spectator, he is strictly prohibited from participating in the event in any role or capacity, or from accessing areas that are closed to the public,” the UCI said after Stage 16. “This includes, in particular, areas of the Tour de France that require accreditation.”

The governing body said it had contacted Amaury Sport Organisation, the Tour de France organizer, to ask whether Bruyneel “was granted an official accreditation, to understand how this could have happened, and to ensure that no further accreditation will be issued to him.”

It said it “will take all appropriate measures.”

In 2014, the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency said Bruyneel, a former rider and team manager, “was at the apex of a conspiracy to commit widespread doping on the (U.S. Postal Service) and Discovery Channel teams spanning many years and many riders.”

Bruyneel claimed he, Armstrong and others were made scapegoats for an era when doping was “a fact of life” in cycling.

“I do not dispute that there are certain elements of my career that I wish had been different,” Bruyneel said at the time. “However, a very small minority of us has been used as scapegoats for an entire generation.”