Portuguese former racer José Azevedo has said that he never saw ex-teammate Lance Armstrong taking banned substances during their time together at US Postal Service and Discovery Channel Pro Cycling in 2004 and 2005.
Armstrong, who admitted to doping during his career in 2013, has been banned from cycling for life and had all results from 1998 onwards stripped from his palmarès.
He, his team, and several teammates were judged to have been part of a years-long doping conspiracy as USADA named him as the ringleader of “the most sophisticated, professionalized and successful doping program that sport has ever seen”.
Speaking to O Jogo earlier this week, however, Azevedo – former directeur sportif at RadioShack, Katusha, and Delko – claimed that he wasn’t aware of doping occurring while he was at the US squad. He said that he only knows about it because of Armstrong’s confession.
“The project had that side, it wasn’t just Armstrong,” Azevedo said. “But if I know today that Armstrong consumed banned substances it’s because he said so. Because I never saw it.
“I was never harassed within the team to use doping products. It was something that completely passed me by. I had my mission in the team, my calendar, my responsibilities. I went to the races and I knew what my place was and what was expected of me, helping Armstrong win. That was all I was concerned about.
“I did my job, I am proud of what I did in my career. What happened, happened to him,” Azevedo added. “The riders are at home, that is where they train. I don’t know what goes on in other people’s homes. I can speak for myself.
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“And I won’t say anything bad about him, because as a person, as a teammate, for me he was the best there is. He never behaved like a star, he never disrespected us, he always valued our work. And we weren’t there out of obligation, we were paid to work for him. And he always had a word of thanks.”
Azevedo, who now works at Portuguese Continental squad Efapel, said that he’s proud of his racing career, which also saw him represent ONCE as well as Portuguese squads Boavista, Maia, and Benfica.
He praised team leaders Manolo Sainz and Johan Bruyneel, saying that he “learned a lot about cycling” from the men despite their reputations.
“I’m proud of my career as a cyclist. I’m proud to have raced for ONCE, led by Manolo Sainz, who also had problems,” Azevedo said. “And to have raced for US Postal and Discovery, to be Armstrong’s teammate, to have Johan Bruyneel as sports director.
“These are people from whom I learned a lot about cycling. In terms of structural organisation, programming, planning, behavior with the riders, even the psychological part.”