Disgraced cyclist Lance Armstrong’s woman, that’s who. Anna Hansen initially took the blame for an accident last month in Aspen, Colorado, when Armstrong’s SUV hit two parked cars.
The crash happened as the pair left a fundraiser at a hotel and slammed into two cars that were parked on the street. Immediately after the crash, Hansen jumped out of the car and went to the home to apologize.
The homeowner told police that Hansen told them, “I'm Anna, we're the Armstrongs, my husband's Lance, he was just driving maybe too fast around the corner or something,” and that the couple would pay for everything. She left her contact information and the couple drove off. No one was injured in the crash.
When the police investigated, Hansen told them that she was the one who was behind the wheel of Armstrong’s GMC Yukon and was driving because Armstrong had “a little bit too much to drink” and that she had lost control of the car on icy roads. Officers became suspicious and checked the hotel video and saw that Armstrong got into the driver’s side, which was confirmed by a hotel valet.
Hansen later admitted that she was not driving the car, telling officers that she and Armstrong had agreed that she should say she was driving because he is well known and didn’t want the bad publicity.
“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 because I thought, 'Gosh, Anna Hansen hit some cars, it's not going to show up in the papers, but Lance Armstrong hit some cars, it's going to be a national story,” Hansen told the police.
Armstrong was issued a summons and faces charges of driving too fast for conditions and leaving the scene of an accident and failing to report the accident, which could be punishable by up to 90 days in jail and up to $400 in fines. He is due in court on March 17.
The famous cyclist was stripped of all seven of his Tour de France victories and banned for life from racing when he admitted using performance-enhancing drugs after years of denying it.
