Chechu Rubiera on the sanctions against the US Postal Service and Lance Armstrong: "There was hatred towards the figure of Armstrong, Pantani tested positive and nobody attacked him"

Chechu Rubiera was the first luxury domestique Lance Armstrong had at US Postal. Johan Bruyneel signed him from Kelme, a team in which he had achieved 2 great stage victories in the Giro d'Italia and had also twice finished in the top 10 in the premiere Italian stage race.

The Spaniard accompanied Armstrong in his triumphs in the Tour de France between 2001 and 2005, being key in the mountain stages. That impressive US Postal train that ensured no rider was capable of breaking free off the front was led by the man from Gijón.

In an interview with the Jot Down teammates, Rubiera recounted how his signing for the North American team came to be: "They called me because they needed to strengthen the team in the mountains. The offer was to compete in the Tour de France as Armstrong's domestique and, the rest of the season, an alternative calendar in which I was more free and also had options to shine. I also wanted to learn English; something that I saw could serve me the rest of my life."

He explains Armstrong's strategy to win an important stage of the 2001 Tour. "When the Tour reached the Pyrenees and Alps, there were only three of the team left: Armstrong, Roberto Heras and me. We could not cope with the control of the race, and Armstrong, in a strategy that was very cool to see from a fan point of view, made everyone believe that he was not well and went to the tail so that others could take the lead. control. Arriving at the foot of Alpe d'Huez, we attacked and won the stage; That's where Armstrong sealed the Tour."

DOPING

The interesting interview with the Jot Down companions reaches its climax when Rubiera goes into detail about doping and the fact that the UCI decided to take the Tour de France from Lance Armstrong and not give it to the second placed riders.

"When Armstrong is sanctioned and the tours are taken away, they are not given to the second, when it was always understood that if the first one doped, it was said 'you out', and the second the winner. Those tours were deserted. The organizers , the UCI, they said: Come on, we took it from Armstrong, but what do we give it to, to Zülle, who was in the Festina case; to Ullrich, who was in Operation Puerto...? Now, fortunately, the mentality of the athlete, that of the sponsor and that of the fan are different; everything changed".

He was asked about the fact that USADA (the American anti-doping agency) had described the US Postal doping of those years as "the most sophisticated, professional and successful doping program in the history of sport":

"Well, it seems to me that it responds to a feeling of hatred or animosity towards the figure of Armstrong on the part of the people who were at that time - I don't know if they are still now - managing the World Anti-Doping Agency and especially the American Anti-Doping Agency. Armstrong had a personal struggle with them and they with Armstrong; there was something personal there."

Chechu Rubiera affirms that what the US Postal did was also done by many other teams and brokers who, however, did not receive a penalty as strong as Lance Armstrong:

"What you can read that was done in the US Postal Service, you can also read that it was done in Telekom or ONCE; and yet, the objective was always Armstrong; to destroy Armstrong. Pantani tested positive and nobody attacked him "Although he did end badly, psychologically sunk. Ullrich also had problems and I don't think the World Anti-Doping Agency dealt with him like they did with Armstrong. Other runners who admitted they had doped or tested positive were told:" Come on, a two-year sanction", and yet the US Postal workers, the doctors and others, were sanctioned for life."