Frankie Andreu, a former team-mate of Lance Armstrong who helped lift the lid on the disgraced cyclist’s use of performance-enhancing drugs, was the star guest at the Bermuda Bicycle Association’s 50th anniversary banquet.

At the Royal Hamilton Amateur Dinghy Club on Saturday night, Andreu regaled guests with stories of his professional career, during which he finished fourth in the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta and competed nine times in the Tour de France, helping Armstrong to his first two victories in the storied race.

However, Andreu’s achievements in the saddle are overshadowed by the role he played in Armstrong’s downfall. In 2006, Andreu admitted to The New York Times that he had taken erythropoietin to help prepare for the 1999 Tour de France, Armstrong’s breakthrough race.

A year earlier, Andreu and his wife, Betsy, testified that Armstrong had told cancer doctors in their presence that he had doped with EPO, growth hormone, and steroids. In 2012, they testified to the United States Anti-Doping Agency, and a year later Armstrong admitted to using performance-enhancing drugs, including in all seven of his Tour victories.

Speaking to The Royal Gazette in a frank interview more than a decade later, Andreu does not resent that if you google his name, the first few hundred pages deal only with the Armstrong situation rather than his own achievements.

“That was part of me being a cyclist; you can’t separate it,” Andreu said.

“It doesn’t bother me, and when they do read that stuff, hopefully, they can learn a lesson and not go down the same path. It was wrong, and we all paid a big price for it.

“Younger riders, not because of us but because of the ramifications of everything that happened back then, now have a better chance of a cleaner sport than back when it was the Wild West.

“Sponsors don’t put up with it, directors don’t put up with it, and the coaches don’t put up with it, but back then everybody turned a blind eye. The only reason it ended up changing was financial because they lost sponsors when everybody started to get busted.

“It all came down to money, and when it started drying up was when it started to change. Younger riders now don’t have that pressure and have a clearer mind to know they are competing on a level playing field instead of getting on the start line and feeling like you’re already a mile behind.”

Andreu competed at the Atlanta Olympics alongside Bermuda’s Elliot Hubbard, who was instrumental in bringing him to the island to enhance the BBA’s 50th-anniversary celebrations. The American is quick to praise the Bermudian for not compromising his ethics to further his professional career.

“It wasn’t a level playing field back then, as there were different levels of use,” Andreu said.

“Some people only took EPO, others took growth hormone, steroids, cortisone, and when you got to the top, where all the pressure was, it was like an arms war.

“Everybody was taking a ton of stuff because they didn’t know what everybody else was taking, and in my case, I took EPO — that was my limit, and I didn’t go past it. I took it, but I still knew I was going to lose.

“I spent my whole life trying to become a professional to race in Europe, and all of a sudden these fat Belgian guys were getting over Category 1 mountains in front of me and dropping me.

“I made a bad choice, a wrong choice, but it was a choice I made to be able to stay in the peloton and not get my bags packed and sent home. I give credit to the guys who chose not to go down that path, like Elliot, and didn’t make it to the highest level.

“They had better ethics and integrity than some of us and were effectively forced out, so you have to give credit to those who stayed true to themselves and stayed clean.”

Having heard that, it still comes as a surprise when Andreu says he takes pride in the achievements that came while taking performance-enhancing drugs.

“I’m lucky in that I raced for a long time and did every race out there, so I didn’t miss out on anything,” Andreu said.

“People say I should race the masters now, but I lost enough skin through falling when I was a pro to make a new body. Finishing fourth in the Olympics was huge for me, and then coming on to the Champs Élysées in 1999 for the first time with Lance was huge also.

“I still had to do the work; I still had to ride on the front and practically die out there every single day. My first Tour was in 1992 when Miguel Induráin was winning, and I used to see his Banesto team riding on the front all day, every day, and I’d be hanging on at the back wondering how they did it — never in a million years did I ever believe I would be in that position.

“As I went through other years at the Tour, my goals changed. I started getting better and better. Every time you come down the Champs Élysées at the end of the Tour, you get chills on your spine because you made it. But 1999, no matter what everyone says, will always be special to me.”

While admitting that he is pleased none of his children followed in his footsteps to become professional cyclists, he is keen to point out that the sport instils valuable qualities in young people.

“When I first started racing, I wasn’t very good,” Andreu said.

“I got dropped all the time in my teenage years, but I loved it. It was like a family; you ride with the same group of people, and it felt like a reunion at every bike race.

“I got better around 17. That’s when I won my first national championships, and I was racing on the track, and then my goal was the Olympics. I didn’t even really know about pro racing; I thought Super Week in Wisconsin was the biggest race out there.

“I was able to do my first Olympics in 1988 on the track and then the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta. It’s a sport I’m very passionate about and I enjoy it.

“Cycling is a super-humbling sport, and you lose all the time. If you win two races in a year, you’ve had a good year. You’re constantly getting your butt kicked. Mentally, you have to overcome that and move on, so it teaches you a ton of stuff — work ethic, time management, humility, overcoming obstacles, dedication.

“It can be miserable at times racing in France and Belgium in the rain, but you still have to finish the race to move on. I’ve had some good times, but I’m glad my kids are not pro cyclists because of the doping part. It’s the taint and the bad aftertaste that is with me.”

Andreu focused on the lighter side of professional cycling in his after-dinner speech and is pleased that at the age of 58, he can still contribute.

“I do announcing in the US for a ton of cycling events, so every weekend I travel to an event, and it’s really fun,” Andreu said.

“I’m still a part of the sport and see a lot of fun riders and hear their stories. I enjoy it and I’m lucky to be able to continue making a living in the sport.

“My speeches are all funny cycling stories from my career. A little bit of bragging about what I’ve accomplished and done, but with a side of humour to it because in all those years of racing there’s a lot of stuff that happens.

“It’s funny stories of what I did to get through the cycling season. With me racing nine times at the Tour de France and then covering it, every summer in July I was in France for 25 years straight, so there was a lot of stuff that went on.”

For its part, the BBA was delighted to have attracted Andreu to the event, with Hubbard excited to see his former training partner once again.

“On behalf of the BBA, I would just like to say how honoured we are that Frankie is here to help us celebrate our 50th anniversary, and to have Frankie here in the flesh really adds an element of historical value to the event,” Hubbard said.

“Although we have a lot of younger riders attending, we also have the older generation who will know Frankie well and watched him race over the years. It’s a treat for them to meet him. We’re really happy to have him here and out riding with us.”