So moving on to a new subject, a lot of people have been asked what comes next for Lance
Armstrong but I don’t think so many people have asked what comes next for you now?
You’ve spent 13 years investigating?
Yeah I mean I.. even though I.. it did take up a huge chunk of my life the Armstrong story
and certainly in my head, my God, when I look back there are times when I, when I couldn’t
stand in a queue at a supermarket and if I saw somebody wearing a yellow Livestrong wristband
I would have to go and engage in a conversation with that person.
I mean I’d look and say “Hi how are you?” and they’d say “Fine, strange that you
should be talking to me but I’m OK” and I’d say “And are you an Armstrong fan?”
and they’d say “Yeah, yeah I do I admire the guy you know, he’s set up a great cancer
charity and you know I like this wristband because it enables me to support cancer”
and I’d say “well you know he’s a fraud” and they’d say “What?!” and I’d say
“Well this guy, he uses doping products to win big bike races and he’s telling a
lie” and they’d say “I don’t believe that” and I’d say “Well, would you like
me to give you the evidence?”
and they’d say “No” and then I walk away and I feel a bit frustrated but that’s
how I was for years, I couldn’t, I couldn’t see somebody out there who I knew to be an
Armstrong supporter and not confront them and it was that..it was like... it was every
time I was out that I saw somebody.
You know you’d go to a dinner party and some guy would come over, I mean a woman rang
my wife recently and she said “Do you remember 9 years ago you came to my house for dinner
yourself and Dave came?” and my wife said “Yes” Carl is the woman's name she said
“Remember the other friends we had that you didn’t know?”
she said “Remember the guy he was, he was er a third level teacher lecturer and he started
getting at you, he started getting at your husband about Lance Armstrong and Dave was
trying to say that Armstrong was a cheat and this guy was trying to say that Dave was wrong
for calling him a cheat and our dinner was spoilt by this guy basically attacking your
husband?”
you know I’d forgotten this completely because there was plenty of stuff like this but the
woman was really kind of upset she said “I was upset that night because I thought your
husband was entitled to his view our other dinner guest shouldn’t have been attacking
him and now she said when I see, when I see what’s happened” she said “I’m going
to call the guy up and I’m going to remind him of how wrong he was and that he owes your
husband an apology.”
But actually people don’t come.. on Twitter I’ve had loads of people who’ve said I’m
really sorry for doubting you and I’m really sorry that I thought you were an asshole uhm
because that’s what they thought at the time but lots of people have come back and
said you were right actually and well done so uhm so you know that’s been pleasing
too.
Has that been from both the general public but also from your peers and colleagues?
Erm, more general public than peers and colleagues I have to say, God I mean I uhm.. loads of
colleagues have been incredibly generous I’ve had loads of messages, emails Tweets and text
messages from fellow journalists.
The journalists I haven’t heard from really are the ones I got into arguments with, the
ones that defended Armstrong.
I remember, I remember colleague of mine he said to me “If you hate Lance Armstrong
so much and you don’t believe him” and I said “I don’t hate him I just don’t
believe him there’s nothing personal in this, this is about doping and about protecting
the sport for clean riders.”
He said “Well if that’s the way you feel that Armstrong is a fraud and he’s going
to win the tour again like why do you go on the tour?” he said “Why don’t you just
stay at home and let.. leave it?”
and I said, I said “Well if I don’t go I said I leave the field open for basically
assholes like you to go there and write bull because you’re not going to ask any questions
and the one thing we need in this story is journalists asking questions.”