For the first time since Lance Armstrong confessed to doping, his mentor Johan Bruyneel, former manager of the US Postal, Discovery Channel, Astana and RadioShack teams, has spoken publicly. The Belgian denies the accusations directed at him.

He is accused of heavy doping practices in the USADA’s Reasoned Decision on Lance Armstrong and Bruyneel himself, and several former riders from his team have confirmed this picture. Bruyneel is bewildered and appears in denial: I can look everyone right in the eye. I have never endangered anyone’s health,” he told Belgian newspaper Het Nieuwsblad.

Bruyneel says his hands are tied right now: “I can’t go into detail because of the ongoing case. But I can tell you one thing: I am not a devil. The public may think that now, but in time everyone will get a better understanding of the situation. And then the picture will change. According to the USADA report I was the mastermind behind the most sophisticated doping system ever, but that’s not true. I’m convinced of that.”

Bruyneel finished by calling Floyd Landis vindictive, and the Armstrong comeback the stone that got the whole case rolling: “If Armstrong hadn’t made his comeback, and if I had taken Landis back into the team, all of this wouldn’t have happened. I’m 200% sure of that.”

It remains to be seen if the public will ever get what Bruyneel claims is the full picture, and that he implies is far more complex than what is now known, or if he keeps up the “omertà” among doping users.