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Considered one of the most talented cyclists of his generation, Greg LeMond competed at a time when performance-enhancing drugs were just beginning to impact his sport. From his earliest days of professional cycling LeMond was strongly against taking drugs to alter performance, and his career is devoid of the suspicions that have tarnished his successors. His willingness to speak out against doping and those prominent individuals involved in it ended up inadvertently linking him with the sport’s doping scandal controversies. In his opposition to fraud, corruption and what he saw as complicity on the part of cycling officials, LeMond became a lightning rod of sorts for the sports most prominent personalities. In 2001 LeMond was one of first professional cyclists of note, and the only former Tour champion, to openly express doubts over the legitimacy of Lance Armstrong's three-consecutive Tour successes. He has consistently questioned the relationship between riders and sports doctors like the Italian Michele Ferrari. Ferrari was ultimately banned for life by the United States Anti-Doping Agency in July 2012 for his association with doping. In 2006 LeMond noted that the extent of doping in the sport could not occur without complicity from the body that regulates international professional cycling, and he accused the Union Cycliste Internationale of serious doping-related corruption.〔(Greg LeMond - 'Cycling is dying through Drugs' at Play the Game Conference ), 27:00 and 44:00 Play the Game Conference, Coventry University, 2009 Jun 12, retr 2012 10 14〕〔(UCI's failure to silence LeMond ), Daniel Benson and Susan Westemeyer, Cycling News, October 4, 2012〕 In an open letter in December 2012 he asserted that UCI's Pat McQuaid and Hein Verbruggen were central to the problem in professional cycling. LeMond claimed professional cyclists are treated as "lab rats," while the doping facilitators escape harm or responsibility. He told an audience at Coventry University, "The doctors, the management, the officials, they're the ones that have corrupted riders. The riders are the only ones that pay the price".〔 LeMond's statements have brought him into conflict with some of the sport's elite, including the UCI's McQuaid and Verbruggen, the Trek Bicycle Corporation, and riders Lance Armstrong, Floyd Landis, and Alberto Contador. In the interests of reforming the sport, LeMond offered to serve as president of the UCI, taking over the position of former president Pat McQuaid. ==UCI and Pat McQuaid== In around 2006, LeMond had described Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI) as "corrupt" in an interview in ''L'Équipe'' about doping in the sport. In response the UCI and Pat McQuaid threatened to sue him for defamation in Switzerland.〔〔 In 2007 LeMond, inspired by a positive experience at L'Étape du Tour, felt that perhaps the Tour de France could start a clean-up in the sport by separating from UCI. He made his feelings known to Patrice Clerc and Christian Prudhomme. LeMond soon after received a letter from UCI's Pat McQuaid threatening him with another lawsuit.〔 Following the United States Anti-Doping Agency findings against Lance Armstrong and U.S. Postal Service in 2012, LeMond stated that a change needed to be made at the head of leadership for the UCI, and stated if called upon he would be willing to take the position himself if necessary to lead cycling out of the mire of doping. Said LeMond: "It is now or never to act. After the earthquake caused by the Armstrong case, another chance will not arise. I am willing to invest to make this institution more democratic, transparent and look for the best candidate in the longer term." Lemond came to support British Cycling president Brian Cookson in the UCI Presidential battle. Said Lemond: “I have met and spent some time discussing with Brian about where cycling lost its way, how it lost its way, and what to do to bring the sport back to where it is not only a sport that leads by example, but a sport that inspires people once again. I feel confident after meeting Brian that his interest is to bring honest and transparent leadership to a sport that so desperately needs it. My hope is Brian will be the one to bring all interested parties together to once and for all do what was needed to be done years before, find solutions, both short term and long term, and to make it a priority that cycling comes first, not the other way around.” Cookson defeated McQuaid at the September 2013 UCI Congress in Florence, Italy. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Greg LeMond anti-doping stance and controversies」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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