In the new ESPN documentary LANCE, Lance Armstrong at one point said “it could be worse, I could be Floyd Landis, waking up a piece of shit every day,”. But Landis responded kindly to the comments Armstrong made.
“I have some empathy for him because I went through some real public humiliation and it hurts. You want to blame somebody and sometimes it’s easier to find the most obvious thing or person and blame them. He can blame me – maybe it would still be a secret if it wasn’t for me,” Landis said.
“I couldn’t manage it anymore. I had to come clean. He’s obviously not happy about that. I hope he finds some peace in his life. I don’t have any further animosity towards him.”
“I wasn’t sure if anyone would believe me and I figured you know Lance’s approach to life is nothing succeeds like excess right? He’s a Hunter S Thompson fan… So if you fight a guy like that you got to fight with everything you can get.
“So I figured, I need some people with some real muscle on my side. … I did know that the federal government would probably be more likely to look into it.”
“He was an extraordinarily good athlete and the best cyclist that I ever raced with and a standout even among the elite cyclists. We all have some flaws and obviously his got aired out more than anybody would want but he was he was not like everyone else,” Landis said.
“I’d never expect the world to be able to put themselves in my shoes or Lance’s shoes, but there’s a lot more to it than just one bad guy that got a bunch of other people to dope and was kind of mean. It’s complicated: Lance was also a kid one time and had dreams of racing his bike and didn’t realize probably what he was walking into.”
