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No terror threat to Tour -- race director Posted: Saturday July 06, 2002 8:59 AMLUXEMBOURG (Reuters) -- Tour de France director Jean-Marie Leblanc has insisted there is no terror threat hanging over American defending champion Lance Armstrong or his U.S. Postal team. "I can show you a document we received in recent days from the French Interior ministry which states that no terror treat is hanging on Lance Armstrong or his team," Leblanc told Reuters on Saturday. The race chief, in charge of his 14th Tour which begins with the prologue from Luxembourg on Saturday, met Armstrong recently to discuss security issues. "I did not ask him about my security but about the security of the race, about everybody's security," Armstrong said Thursday. "I wanted to make sure all the security measures had been taken in conjunction with French police and French authorities so that we can feel safe," he said. "The answer was yes." Leblanc added that he felt the atmosphere on the Tour, tarnished recently by doping scandals, was calmer this year. "The Tour de France seems to me infinitely more serene and relaxed than in 1999 or 2000," he said. "I think that a majority of the media and the public admit that we've done our very best to fight doping. "If an incident should take place, it can only be an individual case, like what happened with Jan Ullrich for instance," he said. Ullrich, the 1997 Tour de France winner, admitted Saturday having taken amphetamine pills at a disco last month which resulted in a positive dope test.
Copyright 2003 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved. |
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