Another example of Lance Armstrong's lamentable despotism in the peloton: "He didn't let us on the podium and he went up by himself"

Igor González de Galdeano finished second at the 1999 Vuelta a España and fifth in the 2001 and 2002 Tour de France, just when Lance Armstrong dominated with an iron fist. The Basque rider did not like the Texan, whom he did not see as an exemplary leader:

"The keys to leadership do not go through getting people to do what they have to do, but to want to do what they have to do."

In the Tour de France we often saw him scold his teammates for attacking or for pacing at the head of the group when it didn't seem right to him and Galdeano had a problem with him in a Midi-Libre. He finished second overall and attacked in the last stage, something the Texan did not take positively:

"Being a leader you don't have to be good. And I'm talking about a case, the one I experienced with Lance. He insulted Marcos Serrano and me in the last stage of the GP du Midi-Libre, when we attacked him, and then, once the race was over, he told us that if we got on the podium he wouldn't do it. He didn't let us get on and he took the photo only in the box."

The former ONCE and Euskaltel rider, among others, explained that Lance Armstrong used 'humiliation' to control everything:

"His was a leadership based on the psychological pressure that he wanted to exert facing the 2002 Tour and a leadership of dominance and humiliation over the rest to have everything under control."