Lance Armstrong has joined Jan Ullrich in saying he will sue Willy Voet – the Festina Soigneur who was implicated in the doping of the Virenque’s team – if he takes his allegations that “all tour winners in last 30 years” were doped any further.

Armstrong spoke to German websiteSport1.de before the start of the Tour De Suisse, after Voet had made the accusations on German TV. “The media have given a forum to this man. They give him credibility and the possibility for him to speak. This man makes money out of the whole affair at the same time. If he says something, his name becomes even more important…Willy Voet is completely full of shit.”

He continued “But he should watch out, because as soon as he accuses people publicly and directly, he has to be brought before court. So long as he doesn’t say: Lance Armstrong was doped in 1999 or Jan Ullrich was doped in 1997, you can’t make anything of it. But as soon as he calls me by name, I would start proceedings against him.”
He also spoke out on the recent Giro raids for the first time. “I believe there was more made of the whole thing than was actually there. They searched rooms and found things, but did not say what. If they found vitamin C, they would have said that they found something. That is unprofessional, undemocratic and unfair.”

“But there were also riders who had some stuff found on them. We don’t need to name names, because we know them all. For these people, there are no apologies. It is pure stupidity, they are total idiots and they should be excluded from the sport! Some say for two years, others for life. I don’t know what would be fair.”

“The sport of cycling already paid a high price for 1998. Everyone of us has a responsibility to keep the sport alive.”

Armstrong then went on to take a 5 second victory in the prologue time trial of the Swiss Tour, with fellow USPS riders Tyler Hamilton and Viatcheslav Ekimov in 3rd and 4th, so it looks like they’re on form for the big one.

Meanwhile Giro winner, Gilberto Simoni, has not yet decided whether he will start the ‘Tour, until he sees what form he has in the Tour De Suisse and Italian Championships (if they are run).

Thanks to cyclingnews.com for the qoutes.