Lance Responds to Doping Allegations - Wild Texas Forums: Parks, Travel & Recreation

Shannon · 08-25-2005, 10:10 AM

August 24, 2005 -- USA Today

August 24, 2005 -- Sports Illustrated

In case you've missed it, a French magazine with close ties to the Tour de France has alleged Lance Armstrong tested positive for EPO (a banned, performance enhancing drug) at the time he won his first (1999) Tour de France. They've gone so far as to say his first Tour win should be stripped from him, and that he's "duped fans and the Tour".

Lance reaffirms that he has never used performance enhancing drugs. However, it's also public knowledge (he wrote it in his first book) that as part of his cancer treatment he had to take EPO to boost his red blood cell count (that's what the drug does) just to survive. He made that clear when he returned to competitive cycling. At first, I thought, "Well, so they found EPO, it's probably residual from his treatment." But further reading indicates that EPO doesn't remain detectible in urine for very long, and these new tests weren't performed until 2004 on frozen urine samples Lance provided during the 1999 Tour. Something smells, here.... It's a huge blow to cycling that the world body of cycling would so freely try to topple and disgrace it's #1 star athlete, but that appears to be exactly what they're intently trying to do by talking to the press before talking to Lance Armstrong, other laboratories who also do EPO testing, etc.

PS: Lance will be on Larry King Live at 9-10 p.m. ET tonight.

01ACRViper · 08-25-2005, 11:55 AM

the french have never liked his success, hopefully this new wave of accusations will go away like all the others

Shannon · 08-26-2005, 06:53 AM

I hadn't realized how sleazy the French media had been, during the duration of Lance's reign in the Tour de France.

Here's an article from last night's Lance / Larry King interview. I didn't tune in, but I assume the article touches on the key points of the interview.

ploddinTod · 08-26-2005, 04:41 PM

Thanks for the headsup on the Larry King Show. I watched it and think Lance acquitted himself very well. No finger pointing at the camera like baseball's R. Palmiero.
I believe it's a witch hunt by the French.

MissionCamper · 08-27-2005, 06:09 PM

What gets me is that the guy has already said he's going to retire and this is the send off they're giving him???

Sad, truly sad.

01ACRViper · 09-16-2005, 09:04 AM

http://www.cyclingnews.com/news.php?...p05/sep16news2

Quote:

In a Thursday afternoon conference call with Lance Armstrong, Bill Stapleton and Armstrong's attorney Mark S. Levinstein of Williams & Connolly, Armstrong's agent Stapleton came out firing with both barrels against WADA head Dick Pound's recent comments, saying right up front, "What Mr. Pound did today, giving false and misleading statements that try to misdirect and divert the attention away from himself [and WADA] by alleging that the UCI is the source of the leak [of Lance Armstrong's medical control information for 1999] is wrong. The fact is what [L'Equipe journalist] Damien Ressiot got are the testing forms that Lance filled out when he took his tests in 1999. Those forms have a name and a number, but the issue is that there were codes attached to anonymous samples that were leaked to the press. That is where the system broke down here, and is the fundamental question here in terms of the [medical control] system and whether we can have confidence in it. Somebody directed that lab to leak the sample information with the codes and that is the question we should answer first before we start crucifying athletes without any due process. Pound has a long-standing pattern of attacking athletes prior to them having due process and has made statements that are in contradiction of his own [WADA] code. So there is a big problem with the medical control system."

Stapleton acknowledged that Lance Armstrong had approved Damien Ressiot of L'Equipe to review his archived medical control forms at UCI Headquarters in Aigle, Switzerland, but Stapleton underlined that, "The form that the UCI gave Ressiot is not the issue here; we knew he had been given that form... so Pound says if the UCI won't admit that they are the source of the leak, [WADA] will release [UCI President Verbruggen's letter to WADA] and we invite Pound to release the letter. Because we don't have anything to worry about..."

Lance Armstrong also confirmed that they had authorised Ressiot to look at Armstrong's medical control records and Stapleton explained, "Let's be clear here; there were six [Proces Verbal medical control] forms shown in the L'Equipe article. We were told at the beginning of the Tour that Ressiot wanted to go to the UCI to see if Lance had ever had any medical exemptions on his forms [TUE, or Therapeutic Use Exemption]. I knew about it, Johan [Bruyneel] knew about it and Lance knew about it, but it was solely to look at the forms to see if there was this medical exemption on it."

Armstrong then commented, "There have been rumours around the press room for years that I was allowed because of my illness, because of my situation, to use EPO, to use anabolics. I heard that going back to 1999. Ressiot came along and said 'Look, I want to help you guys out, everybody's talking about this and I just want to look at one of your forms to see that there's not a TUE on there.' So we said sure, but the point being, he looked at one form but they showed six in the newspaper."

When Cyclingnews asked Armstrong where he thought the additional five Proces Verbal medical control forms came from, he said, "That's exactly the point. What's at issue here for us and for Dick Pound is the integrity of the [medical control] system. Where did the forms come from? And those are the questions that the UCI has asked WADA. And [WADA] has those answers; they are not answering those questions. So Dick Pound is trying to divert serious ethical issues with WADA and with himself. And if you access to the form and you can put it up with the sample, there is such a possibility to sabotage the system. The system has seriously failed and when these systems fail, you have to go to the head. And [Pound] won't answer the questions."

Armstrong further cast his doubts on the authenticity of the samples, pointing out that after the French team had won the World Cup Soccer in 1998, their samples and medical control information were destroyed in 24 hours. "That's a double standard! Where did the code numbers that went with the forms come from? That's what we're trying to find out. There's a lot on the line. We're not afraid of anything. We're trying to through this process to clear my name to some extent but we're not getting the answers; we don't know," said a frustrated Armstrong.

"I've been through this so many times; this is not our first rodeo with me and the French and doping and drugs and accusations and proof and so called proof. We know what EPO is, we know how strong it is, we know that it works. We know that we were formally investigated in 2000 for 18 months [in France] and they seized everything. And the only result was that the samples were 'too clean... TOO clean!' So it doesn't add up."

Armstrong's attorney Levinstein, who has extensive experience representing athletes, told Cyclingnews, "There was no reason for the lab to put the [medical control] numbers on the samples [from the 1999 Tour], instead of anonymous numbers, unless you are going to match the numbers [with the Proces Verbal medical control forms]. The French lab was responsible for those numbers being on the forms. The lab intentionally ignored medical control protocols to put the numbers on and the only reason they would do such a study with numbers on it is if someone told them to do so and were out to get someone in particular by matching those numbers."

As to whether Armstrong is contemplating legal action, he said that, "all options are open, it's all on the table" and categorically refused to rule out judicial recourse. As for a possible comeback in 2006, a fed up Armstrong put paid to the talk once and for all today, saying "Sitting here in my chair right now... yeah, I opened up the possibility a couple of weeks ago; I thought 'maybe I need to go back to the Tour for another one'. It seemed like the right answer. But sitting here today, dealing with all this stuff again and obviously it would be the Tour, there is no way I could go to France and get a fair shake, either on the roadside, in the doping control, or in the lab, or in the hotel or in the food or whatever. There's no way I could go back there. We're not going back [to France]. I'm happy with way my career ended, the way it went. I'm not coming back."

"I'm in here dealing with his BS," said Armstrong. "I've got three kids out swimming in the pool, splashing around, screaming my name... I'm sick of this."

Cliffs:

*Lance was duped by a french reporter

*the leak came either from the head of the UCI or the World Anti-Doping Agency (this is unbelievable).

*Lance is probably going to sue the #### out of someone and win.

*He's not coming back to cycling after all.

Shannon · 05-31-2006, 09:21 AM

Quote:

AMSTERDAM, Netherlands (AP) - Independent Dutch investigators cleared Lance Armstrong of doping in the 1999 Tour de France on Wednesday, and blamed anti-doping authorities for misconduct in dealing with the American cyclist.

A 132-page report recommended convening a tribunal to discuss possible legal and ethical violations by the World Anti-Doping Agency and to consider "appropriate sanctions to remedy the violations."

Full Story

MissionCamper · 06-10-2006, 05:45 PM

Anything in that report about why he and Sheryl Crow split? Inquiring minds want to know!