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Armstrong limbers up with broadside at Bush
William Fotheringham
Monday March 10, 2003
The Guardian
Lance Armstrong, who is close to George W Bush, has told the president that he is opposed to war in Iraq. "He's a personal friend of mine but we've all got the right not to agree with our friends," said Armstrong.
The two Texans have a close relationship. Bush has appointed the cyclist to his presidential commission on cancer, has received Armstrong several times at the White House and phoned Armstrong almost immediately after he won his fourth Tour last July. But Armstrong is also famously independent-minded.
"I think we ought to consider the opinion of other strong nations," he added. "Entering in a unilateral way into the war is an error. But he has got all the information, he's the president and my opinion doesn't really matter. I'd always opt for a peaceful solution and not for a war."
Armstrong was speaking during the Tour of Murcia in southern Spain, his first build-up event to his attempt to win a fifth successive Tour de France. Showing signs of form already, he came close to his first win of the year yesterday in the final time-trial stage.
Armstrong was only 2sec behind the stage and overall winner, Javier Pascual Llorente of Spain, in the 12.9km (eight miles) individual contre-la-montre around Murcia.
It could well be that, when Armstrong rides the Tour in July, his country will be at war and he accepts that there could be threats to his personal security. "That is one of the consequences of war. I don't know if it would cause me problems, in the Tour de France for example. I hope it won't."
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And this, an interview found on Armstrong's own website, also dated March 10, 2003
Did you have any problems with the Spanish / Euro media? We read a few interviews you did that seemed pretty upbeat and focused mainly on cycling.
- No, no real problems at all. The only slight problem is that I was doing media stuff every night and that gets stressful. It's funny, you'll have a guy that just stands around and expects a 20 minute interview and will wait till he gets it. On the other hand you have other media outlets who call Jogi - our press manager - and schedule stuff weeks in advance. With the demand these days these are the ones I do and not the others. There's just not enough time in the day for every one of them.
I got lots of war questions which are making me more and more uncomfortable. Their position is "Well, you're the President's friend, so what can you tell us?.." I suppose at the end of the day athletes should be athletes and not diplomats or politicians. While I've told them I hope we can avoid war (who doesn't want to??), know this: I support the President and our troops 100%.