Former rival of Lance Armstrong reveals story of insults and blackmail before 2002 Tour de France: "They are people who manipulate reality to win, to take over everything"

Many cyclists over the years have criticized Lance Armstrong's 'bossy' practices during his time of dominating the peloton. The last one to remember the Texan's arrogance has been Igor González de Galdeano.

Many believe that Armstrong's cheating was focused on doping, but it went far beyond that. He controlled rivals, shouted in the peloton and frightened organizers. For example, what the Spaniard Galdeano, then a cyclist with Manolo Saiz's ONCE, experienced in a GP du Midi-Libre in which he was second overall behind the US Postal rider in one of the decisive stages.

This is what he said on the SER radio station: "I want to tell you a story that happened to me with Lance Armstrong in a race called the Midi Libre, preparatory to the Tour de France. I coincided with him. In the last stage I was second overall behind him by a few seconds and I was finishing on a hard climb. He must not have been feeling well and one of my surprises was that he started to insult me".

Not only did he insult him, he also did not allow him to stand on the podium of the race (in the video below you can see the photo of Armstrong alone on the podium of the race):

"Every time I attacked him he would come from behind, not only because of the effort, but he would say all those insults to me that I'm not going to reproduce now in English and Spanish, because he spoke some Spanish. The truth is that I was very surprised at how unsportsmanlike he was and how little respect he had for his opponents. When we arrived at the finish line, it was the last day, we went up to the podium the first 3. I was second. The race director told me 'Igor, you can't go up, because Lance Armstrong has told me that if you go up, he won't go up and I can't do anything else because we need Lance Armstrong on the podium'".

Igor deeply regrets what the Texan was doing:

"Stories of how people like Lance have manipulated history, people, how he has imposed his power over everything. Thanks to that power he won many victories and stepped on many people like he stepped on me at that moment. In the photo of the Midi Libre of 2002 he is alone. They are people who manipulate reality to win, to take over everything".

It must be said that Igor was not just anyone. Precisely in that year 2002, in the Tour de France he finished fifth, wore yellow and won a time trial. His ONCE colleague Joseba Beloki was second overall behind Lance Armstrong who, as you know, would later be stripped of his victory for systemic doping.