Francisco "Frankie" Andreu (born September 26, 1966) is an American former professional cyclist whose career highlights include riding as team captain of the U.S.
His highest finish in the Tour de France was second during the 18th stage of the 1993 race where he was teammates with a young Lance Armstrong on the Motorola Pro cycling team.
[5] In a September 2006 interview given to The New York Times, Andreu admitted that he had taken the performance-enhancing drug erythropoietin (EPO) to help prepare for the 1999 Tour de France.
Andreu declared he knowingly received EPO injections in 1999 after races by the USPS Team doctor, Luis Garcia del Moral.
[8] In 2005, Andreu and his wife Betsy testified that Lance Armstrong told cancer doctors in their presence in 1996 he had doped with EPO (erythropoietin), growth hormone and steroids.
As part of the settlement, SCA Promotions paid Armstrong and Tailwind Sports $7.5 million, to cover the $5-million bonus plus interest and lawyers' fees.
Armstrong's statement also suggested that Betsy Andreu may have been confused by possible mention of his post-operative treatment which included steroids and EPO that are routinely taken to counteract wasting and red-blood-cell destroying effects of intensive chemotherapy.
[10] In that period of time, the Andreus claim to have received threatening messages on their answering machine left by Stephanie McIlvain, the Oakley representative for Armstrong.
[13] Armstrong did not contest the doping charges, was banned for life from competing and was stripped of all results from August 1, 1998, onward, including his seven Tour de France titles.
[14] In the USADA's 200 page "Reasoned decision", the hospital room incident where the Andreus heard Armstrong say to his doctor that he took performance-enhancing drugs was covered in great details in the "Addendum Part 2".
[15] In a January 2013 interview, Lance Armstrong finally admitted that he had used performance-enhancing drugs for much of his professional career, including all seven of his Tour de France wins.
Many of the riders, including Tyler Hamilton, Santiago Botero, Óscar Sevilla and Mario Cipollini, were involved in or linked to drug investigations in cycling.