BikeBiz Bicycle and cycling retail news
Lance Armstrong has reacted with "concern and dismay" at the "false allegations" made by David Walsh and Pierre Ballester in their soon-to-be-published book, ‘LA Confidential’.
Allegations were also carried in The Sunday Times and French weekly L’Express. Schillings is to sue the two papers as well as the book publishing company.
Schillings is to apply to the High Court in London today for an injunction against the Sunday Times and David Walsh, preventing the airing of any further allegations and seeking "substantial damages" for the allegations carried to date.
Further suits will be filed in Paris against David Walsh, Pierre Ballester, the publishers of ‘LA Confidential’ and the publishers of L’Express.
In Dutch newspaper De Telegraaf Armstrong said of the chief sports writer of The Sunday Times:
“Walsh is the worst journalist I know. There are journalists who are willing to lie, to threaten people and to steal in order to catch me out. All this for a sensational story. Ethics, standards, values, accuracy — these are of no interest to people like Walsh.”
For his part, Walsh denies he has a "vendetta" against Armstrong. He says he’s against doping in all sports, not just cycling.
Four years ago Walsh wrote: “Doping is destroying cycling and many other sports. It is pervasive and it is sanctioned by sports bodies and event organisers. Is there anybody out there who gives a damn? Who cares that today’s champions are hypochondriacs and that tomorrow’s will come directly from the laboratories, injected with alien but powerful genes?”
