Museeuw misses cycling "family"

Johan Museeuw confessed in January 2007 to not having been "100 per cent honest" during the final year of his cycling career, and resigned from his job as public relations officer for Team Quick Step. While he did not specify what he meant, it was generally interpreted as an admission of doping use. Now, he says, "I have lost friends through this affair".

In an interview on Sunday with Belgian Radio 2, he said, "In the long run, I no longer saw what was right or wrong. You think that if you are the king of cycling, no one can touch you. Stupid, but that's the way it is."

According to sporza.be, he added that, "With Patrick Lefevere and Wilfried Peeters I shared 15 years of joy and sadness, but now the contact is gone." That makes him sad. "That Lefevere and Peeters distance themselves professionally, I find that okay. But in my eyes, friendship continues forever. I shared a room with Wilfried for 15 years. You can say anything to each other, he was like a brother. And Lefevere was a second father to me. We telephoned almost every day."

He concluded, "I have problems with that. I do not really understand that there is not more contact, although I know that they are under pressure."

(Additional editorial research and assistance provided by Monika Prell and Susan Westemeyer.)