Mike Anderson was Lance Armstrong’s personal assistant for two years. In a long and detailed article published in Outside Online, Anderson reveals a disappointing and vengeful look at Lance Armstrong.
Armstrong was recently stripped of seven Tour de France titles because he refused to enter a legal war against the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency (USADA). By the looks of it, Armstrong didn’t defuse the situation or save face by quitting the fight against the USADA. His reputation is about to take a bigger hit.
Anderson claims that he started to work for Armstrong in 2002 as a mechanic, trail builder, handyman and assistant. Anderson and Armstrong were friends. He had given Anderson a written and verbal commitment to finance a bike shop in Austin once his commitment to Armstrong’s cycling campaign was over.
Armstrong’s agent Bill Stapleton, told Anderson, “We had you checked out,” he said, “You’re white trash like the rest of us.”
The relationship ended when Anderson refused to sign a nondisclosure agreement. The bike shop was never opened. Anderson was fired in 2004. He explains that Armstrong started to attack him, personally and professionally because he would not sign the agreement. Anderson would have to move his family to New Zealand to get away.
Although, Anderson believed he would be a professional aid, he soon found himself involved in Armstrong’s personal life. He was there when Armstrong told his wife, Kristin, that he was leaving her, on a beach in Santa Monica. Anderson explains that he took out the family’s garbage and built toys for Armstrong’s children, who referred to him as “Uncle Mike.”
Anderson goes into detail about Armstrong’s excessive spending, partying, drinking. He paints Armstrong as a man who had his wife’s personal items, including her family pictures, thrown out. He claims that, Armstrong told him that he “hated Livestrong events.”
On the subject of cheating, Anderson states:
During a training ride after the emergence of a doping scandal centering on Belgian rider Johann Museeuw—who’d been a favorite of mine for his multiple wins of Paris-Roubaix, the hardest one-day race of them all—I asked Armstrong whether he thought any of the cheating allegations were true. “Everyone does it,” he said nonchalantly, looking me straight in the eyes. That floored me. I didn’t say anything else, but the implication was clear enough.
He would later find a banned steroid called Androstenedione in Armstrong’s medicine cabinet.
Anderson shares details and stories with Outside Online for pages and pages.
He’s not the first one to publicly cite poor treatment by Armstrong. In 2005, Betsy Andreu, wife of one of Armstrong’s former teammates, told Bicycling magazine that in 1996, she heard Armstrong tell doctors in an Indianapolis hospital room that he’d used EPO, human growth hormone, cortisone, steroids, and testosterone.
When her honesty was questioned, Andreu stated:
“What’s the upside been, going up against Lance?” she said. “To be publicly and privately portrayed as an ugly, obese, jealous, obsessed, hateful, crazed bitch?” She pointed out that crossing Armstrong wasn’t exactly good for her husband’s career arc in bike racing—she believes he lost his 2006 job as team director for Toyota-United because of the controversy surrounding their statements.
Andreu and Anderson, along with a growing list of others accusing Armstrong of using his power, money and influence to keep them and others quiet, the world is full of misguided opinions and half truths. Money does strange things to people. Lance Armstrong’s Livestrong foundation is one of the most successful and inspiring foundations in the world. His charity work and story have touched millions of people and his fundraising has benefited those in great need.
Innocent until proven guilty.