Leave the bike, take the cannoli.
Here’s an all-time tale to add to the ledger of disgraced doper Lance Armstrong: A retired Italian cyclist alleges Armstrong gave him a $100,000 bribe in a cake box to let him win a 1993 race in the United States with a $1 million purse.
“It was a young American colleague,” Roberto Gaggioli told the Corriere della Sera, according to a translation. “He offered me a panettone [a traditional Italian Christmas cake] as a present and wished me a merry Christmas. In the box there were $100,000 in small bills. That colleague was Lance Armstrong.
“Lance said that my team, Coors Light, had agreed to it. I understood that it had all been decided.”
The fixed-up win was crucial to a 22-year-old Armstrong — before he became a celebrated cancer survivor, Tour de France champion and humiliated ringleader of a performance-enhancing drug conspiracy — ultimately locking up the seven-figure prize.
The Million Dollar Race was also known as — irony alert — the Thrift Drug Triple Crown, comprising races in Pittsburgh, West Virginia and Philadelphia. Gaggioli says Armstrong made his pastry payoffs before the final leg in Philly. If Armstrong completed the sweep, he would win $1 million and become the U.S. champion; if Gaggioli or anyone else were victorious, they would only claim a $25,000 prize.
“Two laps from the end, I was in a breakaway with Lance, Bobby Julich and some Italian riders from the Mercatone team,” said Gaggioli, who seemed to fade into the pack in the above video after Armstrong breaks away.
“When Lance made a sign, I turned away as if not to see that he had escaped. He broke away to win on his own.”
Other opponents who had been bought off weren’t as clear on the fee, according to rider Roberto Pelliconi: “Angelo Canzonieri [another rider] and Lance agreed on a fee of 50, Angelo thought he meant dollars but Lance meant lire. At the Tour of Lombardy he gave us 50 million [lire].”