If Lance Armstrong‘s name has become a byword for pulling a dick move and then covering it up by lying about it, then the disgraced cyclist really Lance Armstronged it after a recent car accident.
ESPN report that, on December 28th last year, Armstrong was driving home from a party in Aspen when he hit two parked cars. Not wanting his name further tarnished in the press, he decided to let his long-term girlfriend take the blame.
On the night of the incident, Anna Hansen told police that she was driving her boyfriend’s luxury SUV home after he’d had “a little bit to drink”, when she skidded on an icy road and hit the two cars.
Shortly after the incident, Hansen reportedly approached a man who was renting one of the cars, knocking on his door to apologise profusely and offer to pay for the damages she said she’d caused.
In a subsequent police interview, however, she admitted that Armstrong was actually the one driving, but they had mutually decided to let her take the blame.
“We’ve had our family name smeared over every paper in the world in the last couple of years and honestly, I’ve got teenagers, I just wanted to protect my family,” she said.
“I thought, gosh, Anna Hansen hit some cars, it’s not going to show up in the papers, but Lance Armstrong hit some cars, it’s going to be a national story.”
Armstrong has since been cited with failing to report an accident and speeding; Hansen is not charged with a crime.
The former cycling champ won the Tour De France every year from 1999 to 2005, but was later stripped of his titles after reports emerged detailing his use of performance-enhancing drugs.
Photo: Leigh Vogel via Getty Images
