Police: Armstrong cited for hitting cars

Aspen, CO (SportsNetwork.com) – Lance Armstrong’s girlfriend attempted to accept blame after the former cyclist drove his SUV into two parked cars on a snow-packed street in Aspen following a party in December, according to police documents.

Armstrong, the former cycling hero and cancer survivor who was later stripped of his seven Tour de France titles for doping, was eventually cited over the alleged hit-and-run, according to a 10-page incident report obtained Tuesday.

The citations came only after his girlfriend admitted she initially took the blame over the Dec. 28 incident to keep Armstrong’s name out of the headlines.

Anna Hansen appeared at the courthouse three days later with her attorney and changed her story, telling police Armstrong was driving the vehicle when it struck two parked cars on a residential street.

According to the report, she told police that the couple decided jointly to claim she was driving when the accident, which damaged two rented cars, occurred.

She said the family has had its named “smeared over every paper in the world in the last couple of years.”

“I just wanted to protect my family because I thought, ‘Gosh, Anna Hansen hit some cars, (is) not going to show up in the papers, but Lance Armstrong hit some cars, it’s going to be a national story,'” Hansen said according to the report.

After initially claiming that she was driving because Armstrong “had a little bit to drink” at a museum party, Hansen later told police the former cyclist wasn’t drinking.

Armstrong’s attorney, Pamela Mackey, told police on Jan. 2 that Armstrong did not wish to speak to police about the incident.

Police served Mackey with a summons for Armstrong on Jan. 12, citing him with failure to report an accident and exceeding safe speed conditions.

According to the report, officers searching for a vehicle that had struck two parked cars spotted Armstrong’s 2011 GMC Yukon in a driveway and observed “significant damage” to the front end.

Hansen told officers she drove the couple home from an Aspen Art Museum party because Armstrong had been drinking. She said she was driving too fast for the conditions when she lost control of the car and hit two parked cars.

Hansen returned to leave her information at the scene and met a man whose relatives had rented the cars that were hit, telling him she would pay for the damage. The man had already called police and reported a hit-and-run.

Initially, Hansen was cited by police for failing to report the accident and exceeding safe speed conditions.

But an officer who was suspicious of Hansen’s story spoke to an employee of the valet service contracted for the art museum party, who told the officer he helped Hansen into the passenger side of the SUV and that Armstrong “entered the driver’s side and drove away,” according to the report.

The officer called Hansen and asked her to tell her story one more time and she told the same version. When told about the valet employee, Hansen said she and Armstrong switched places after stopping at a shopping market. The officer told her the market has a surveillance video and that he would continue his investigation.

Police contacted the man who spoke to Hansen the night of the collision and he said she “came running around the corner in her high heels in six inches of packed snow” and told him: “I’m Anna, we’re the Armstrongs, my husband’s Lance, he was just driving maybe too fast around the corner or something.”

Armstrong was stripped of his seven consecutive Tour de France titles and given a lifetime ban from the sport in October 2012 in the wake of a report from the United States Anti-Doping Agency that labeled him a drug cheat.

Months later, and after years of denials, Armstrong publicly admitted to blood doping and using prohibited substances throughout his unprecedented run.

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