Armstrong 'let girlfriend lie' over car smash

By Sadie Gurman

Disgraced cyclist Lance Armstrong hit two parked cars with an SUV after a night of partying in Aspen, Colorado, but agreed to let his long-time girlfriend take the blame to avoid national attention, police reports show.

Police cited Armstrong with failing to report an accident and speeding weeks after the December 28 accident, but only after his girlfriend, Anna Hansen, acknowledged lying.

Hansen initially told police she had been driving home from an Aspen Art Museum party when she lost control of Armstrong's GMC Yukon on icy roads, hitting the cars. She said she drove because "Lance had a little bit to drink", according to the reports.

apologising

A man who had been renting one of the damaged cars told a police detective that Hansen came running up to his house in high heels, apologising and promising to pay for the repairs.

"She said, 'I'm Anna, we're the Armstrongs, my husband's Lance, he was just driving maybe too fast around the corner or something'," the man, Thomas Van Allen, told police, according to the reports.

Police say Hansen and Armstrong left the scene before officers arrived.

Detectives later interviewed Hansen, who eventually told them Armstrong was driving, but they had 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," Hansen told police.

hnews@herald.ie