Since the Floyd Landis scandal broke back at the end of July 2006, Patrick Lefevere has been an outspoken critic of Landis and Landis’ decision to defend himself against doping allegations. Among his comments are these:
- Maybe we should sue Landis, why not? Why don’t we use the American way? As long as Landis continues to claim he doesn’t know about anything, such a scenario becomes more and more likely.
- I want to throw up when I hear him. Landis has turned the clock twenty years backwards.
It turns out that M. Lefevere doped while competing as a professional cyclist back in the 1970s according to an article published in the Flemish newspaper Het Laatse Nieuws (The Latest News), as quoted at flandreinfo.be. (A translation of the article by reader Marc appears at Trust But Verify.) The article starts out:
Eight figures in the cycling world made revelations to the Flemish neswpaper Het Laatste Nieuws today regarding Patrick Lefevere, director of the QuickStep cycling team. According to their testimony, Lefevere is said to have been at the center of organized doping in the cycling world for almost 30 years.
The Flemish daily published what it characterizes as 30 years of doping, detoxification, fraud, amphetamines, and EPO. Het Laatste Nieuws bases its charges on statments by eight witnesses, six of them unidentified.
Six of the witnesses are from the cycling world. They prefer to remain anonymous “for fear of the consequences.” Lefevere is described as a central figure in the doping realm from the 70s right up to today.
The two non-cyclists testifying against Lefevere are an Italian physician and a now-former close friend. Of course, as we all know, allegations are not proof. But this is certainly a tantalizing little development, isn’t it? The article goes on:
According to Het Laatste Nieuws, an Italian physician is said to have examined the riders on the Mapei team directed by Lefevere in the 1990s.
“The growth hormones came from the pharmacy and the EPO was ordered by the riders over the Internet. If you wanted to have a good season, you had to pay between 20 and 30,000 euros, medicine included. Lefevere knew about it. He saw what was going on, and he approved it,” the doctor declared.
And it goes on to offer an interesting theory on why Lefevere retired from racing in 1979:
“Lefevere stopped riding when he himself became dependent on the amphetamines that he was pushing,” one witness in Het Laatste Nieuws affirmed.
Lefevere remained involved in cycling after his retirement and has been the director of a number of teams, such as Mapei, which later became QuickStep. He’s had a number of talented riders on his teams, including Johan Museeuw and Tom Boonen. Museeuw, himself, has been the subject of doping allegations and though retired, is suspended (in theory) from working in professional cycling. Yet somehow, he works in a PR capacity for QuickStep, courtesy of one Patrick Lefevere.
Lefevere has had a “Mr. Clean” reputation in the cycling world according the article on flanderinfo.be. And as one could predict, Lefevere denies the allegations, as stated in the article:
Patrick Lefevere formally denies the accusations and characterizes them as “absolute nonsense.”
He admits only that he took amphetamines seven or eight times as a racer. “The rest is nothing other than pure fiction,” he declares.
The QuickStep-Innergetic manager currently wishes to begin legal proceedings against Het Laatste Nieuws.
If these allegations ultimately turn out to be false, Lefevere might have grounds to do what he disparagingly said Americans like to do — sue.
One person who’s spoken out against Lefevere, according to Het Laatse Nieuws, is Luc Capelle. Lefevere, however, disputes Capelle’s credibility.
“Lefevere bought pills from me and took plenty of them, just like everybody,” Capelle affirms.
“Great source,” Patrick Lefevere commented. “That man is currently in prison for attempted murder. His testimony is not credible.”
Perhaps it is, and perhaps it isn’t. Jailhouse snitches have a checkered history of credibility when testifying against others. Especially if they have some motivation to do so — like a reduced prison sentence. But there are 7 other people making allegations against M. Lefevere, so it is perhaps likely that at least some of the allegations have a grain of truth to them.
Patrick Lefevere, by his own admission, was a speed freak while racing as a pro in the 1970s. Is he telling the truth about how many times he used? Hard to say. Is he telling the truth when refuting allegations of doping? Again, hard to say.
M. Lefevere needs to learn a lesson about glass houses, himself. “Mr. Clean” wasn’t. Yet another blow-hard gets his comeuppance.
People never realize that when they pull out the soap box, they will call attention to themselves. Therefore, make sure your house is in order before doing that. If you add what you found out about Lefevere to the record of Lefevere the Director, there is a lot of laundry laying around. My guess is some of that is dirty laundry.
Studies show that drug users rarely stop at one drug.
If Lefevere official line was he was a speed freak and nothing else, it more credible to assume he was into everything than he only popped sone speed and nothing else.
In other words, it’s up to him to prove he stopped with speed, not for us to ask for evidence he did more than that.