Lance Armstrong charged with doping

[PauloBarnesi]

It will drag on and on, and the UCI will avoid doing anything (probably because they are going to be accused of being complicit in the whole thing). From what I understand ten cyclists and multiple witnesses are prepared to testify that Armstrong was involved in a cover up. But who knows what the end game will be, bar that Armstrong and his associates reputations are sinking lower and lower.

[El-Reacho]

I think the witnesses are the key aspect. Their testimony would have been part of the federal inquiry and was then handed to the USADA. The question is was it handed over to USADA and the federal inquiry closed because they didn't think the evidence was strong enough to convict Armstrong and others, or was it because they concluded that it was 'just taking drugs' which wouldn't be enough to make a criminal conviction?

What is the USADA's remit here with regard to the UCI's races and prizes? If the USADA conclude that Armstrong is guilty of everything they've charged him with can the UCI simply ignore it and say they disagree?

[PauloBarnesi]

Well the UCI kind of run cycling and they kind of don’t, in that the Grand Tours do what they want in the end; so it would be the organisers of the Tour I believe who could strip him of the title. But the UCI would be worried by this, as it would be more damning of the current and previous president, not that they seem to have cared previously. Like FIFA they seem to care less about the sport and more about the money

Amusingly it would be hard to find a rider who was clean in Armstrong’s era...

[maqroll]

Greg LeMond= Greatest American cyclist

[El-Reacho]

That's an incredibly depressing diagram. Carles Sastre could end up as one of the most successful TdF riders of recent time if you take away all the guys with a big ? over their head.

When you think of it the UCI actually made their bed with the Contador case because they batted that back to the Spanish Authorities rather than dealing with it themselves. Therefore they have to take the USADA's verdict which will implicate them. Messy....

[veloman]

Greg LeMond= Greatest American cyclist

Certainly a great innovator; his use of tri-bars when he beat Fignon in the last Stage of the Tour changed time-trialling for ever.

re. Lance; don't forget that he was World Champ (Oslo) in 1993 - I had a pic of him winning on my office wall. I don't know if it relevant to point-out that, IIRC, there were no tests for EPO until a bit later than that.

He would, I THINK, have been given EPO quite legally during his treatment for cancer.

[PauloBarnesi]

Greg LeMond= Greatest American cyclist

This man speaks the truth. If only his brother-in-law hadn’t decided to unload a shot gun in his vicinity!

You can watch the greatest Tour here

But my favourite American cyclist has to be Andy Hampsten, win of the 88 Giro. Now purveyor of great bikes

[Tomaszk]

[PauloBarnesi]

La Gazzetta dello Sport reporting large movements of cash to Dr Ferrari

Italian investigators reported as tracing $465,000 payment from Armstrong to Ferrari in 2006

by Shane Stokes at 7:52 AM EST

Categories: Pro Cycling, Doping

Money movements may be part of USADA’s move against US Postal Service team

Although witness statements are expected to form a large part of USADA’s case against Lance Armstrong, Johan Bruyneel and four others connected to the US Postal Service team, investigators from the US and elsewhere are looking at other angles too.

La Gazzetta dello Sport reports that a long investigation into Michelle Ferrari by the Padua prosecutor Benedetto Roberti have shown the transferral of large sums of money. One payment of $465,000 was reportedly made by Armstrong to Ferrari in 2006.

Roberti and his team have used wiretaps, email analysis and also examination of bank accounts to build a case against Ferrari, who was previously banned from working with athletes in Italy. La Gazzetta states that approximately 90 cyclists are involved, as well as a sum of €30 million.

Armstrong retired from the sport in 2005, and so it is not clear why he would have paid money to Ferrari in 2006. However he won a court case against the company SCA Promotions in 2006 over an unpaid bonus for winning his sixth Tour in 2004.

SCA Promotions argued that it had concerns the victories were not clean, but because this stipulation was not part of the original contract, the argument was dismissed.

The 2006 ruling awarded Armstrong the original sum of $5 million, as well as an additional $2.5 in interest and legal fees. Investigators will presumably seek to determine if the sum transferred could be linked to a percentage of this bonus.

Italian connection:

Having first started working with the Italian prior to being diagnosed with cancer in 1996, Armstrong resumed their collaboration when he returned to the sport in 1998. Ferrari’s reputation led to some criticism of this relationship, with Greg LeMond amongst those speaking out, but Armstrong defended the doctor and said that he was a honourable man.

However in 2004 the Texan stated that he was ending his and US Postal’s working relationship with Ferrari when the Italian was convicted for sporting fraud and illegally acting as a pharmacist. [He was cleared in 2006 due to the statute of limitations – ed.] Despite that, Ferrari said in a December 2009 interview with the Italian Cycling Pro magazine that he had actually continued working with the Texan until he retired in 2005.

He said then that the Texan was the last high profile rider he had worked with, yet Alexandre Vinokourov told media prior to the start of the 2007 Tour de France that Ferrari was his coach. The Kazakh rider was later thrown out of the race and given a two year ban after testing positive for a blood transfusion.

Last year Italian media reported that Armstrong had met Ferrari on numerous occasions after his return to cycling in 2009. His spokesman Mark Fabiani confirmed that meetings had taken place, but said that they were not linked to the sport. “Lance has not had a professional relationship with Dr. Ferrari since 2004, but he remains friends with the doctor's family and sees them every once in a while,” he said then. “Lance last saw Dr. Ferrari about a year ago.”

Subsequently, Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera said last September that investigators had linked a range of riders to Ferrari, and said that illegal movement of money between Italy, Monaco and Switzerland had been identified.

It stated then that Ferrari took considerable methods to avoid detection, using foreign cell phones, utilising a mobile camper van as a medical office in Italy and Switzerland, and using his eldest son to liaise with the riders rather than doing so directly himself.

La Corriere reported that Armstrong called the son Stefano before last year's Tour, referring to his father as "No. 1." There were suggestions that there could be several tapped phone calls between the two.

Ferrari later admitted that there had been contact, but claimed it was innocent. “My son Stefano is administering a website which offers personalized training consultancy to various cyclists and triathletes; Lance Armstrong is among them.”

Armstrong has criticised the current USADA proceedings, saying that they are motivated by spite. He and his legal team are demanding that USADA release the names of those who will testify as witnesses; USADA has said it will not do so in order to avoid possible intimidation. If the case goes to trial, it is expected to take place before November.

USADA worried about witness intimidation....

[OutByEaster?]

There's an undercurrent running through all of this that Armstrong is a man who will do whatever it takes to get what he wants - I was reading the wiki page for Greg LeMond earlier and it basically sounds like if you accuse Armstrong of anything, you best make sure you've nothing to lose.

I guess that's the same personality trait that means you can drag your body around France for a couple of weeks in agony, but it's slightly less acceptable when you're off the bike. It doesn't necessarily make him guilty, but it does take something away from him.

It's increasingly looking like cycling during the last ten years has been a level playing field - everyone was on drugs.

[PauloBarnesi]

Armstrong is a well balanced man. He has chips on both shoulders. The book Bad Blood gives an insight into Armstrong over the years and how he turns on people, similarly David Millar’s book paints an unflattering portrayal of the man and his attitude; you are either with him or against him. Much of what he does is motivated by being bought up by a single mother, and his anger is used to fuel his competitive edge. He’s certainly someone who enjoys beating people.

[El-Reacho]

Bruyneel is exactly the same. AT Lance's press conferences during Le Tour he would stand at the side of the room taking notes on what journalists would ask LA. Anybody asking anything that would put LA under any pressure particularly with regards to PED's, that person would be banned from all subsequent press conferences. So no one wanted to be banned from the LA press conference so everyone basically told him how great he was.

I find it incredible to hear Phil Liggett & Paul Sherwen talk about him in such glowing terms without ever making any reference to the allegations.

[PauloBarnesi]

I believe Sherwen was Motorola’s press agent? Certainly the pair of them needed Armstrong to be successful for them to retain the American coverage on whichever network they were on.

Of course this led to Liggett to believe that

and can you trust a journalist who writes

“He told me in a private situation, when I wasn’t working as a journalist. I was sat in the bedroom some years ago, and I asked him point blank, ‘look Lance, the way I talked you up on television, I would have to back off and resign if you one day went positive’. And he looked at me and he said ‘man I’ve seen death in the face and I don’t take drugs.’ And that’s all he said. I have no reason to disbelieve him.”

“But I’ve been with him on his private jet when he’s been reading stuff on Cyclingnews and he’s gone, ‘god damn it look at what they’re saying about me again’ and he just passes his computer over to his friends.”

You can always trust a man who travels with someone he is reporting on in a private jet!

[El-Reacho]

Wow, that Landis interview is proper head in the sand stuff.

[villa89]

It's increasingly looking like cycling during the last ten years has been a level playing field - everyone was on drugs.

TBF you didn't need to be a genius to work that out. Doping and cycling have been going hand in hand for at least the last 20 years. If you read some books by retired cyclists you can see that doping was endemic.

If Cycling is to salvage any reputation they should declare an amnesty for all cyclists who confess to taking performance boosters during their career. Then they can start fresh and tell the current crop of professionals that doping was everywhere in the past but from now on its a lifetime ban for anyone caught involved in doping. You'll still get cheats but at least you might get the sport some respectablility back in a few years.

[veloman]

TBF you didn't need to be a genius to work that out. Doping and cycling have been going hand in hand for at least the last 20 years.

You are right I'm afraid but make that 40 years. You may have heard of English cyclist Tommy Simpson who died during The Tour in the 60's through amphets -Tonodron I think. Amphets were 'de rigeur' on the Continent where cycling was much bigger than it was here. I stopped riding in the 60's and when I came back to it in the mid 80's, although amphets were still about, things seemed to have moved on to HGH (inspired to some extent by the "Easty Beastys" of East Germany). HGH has a proper medical application - I believe it is used to treat 'Dwarfism'. Epo has a number of medical uses today with carrying blood round the body and increasing Red Blood Corpuscles (summat like that anyway). I think it has to be administered by drip feed and if you get it wrong turns your blood to jam.

As far as I know the domestic scene is pretty drug free.

[PauloBarnesi]

Could be the hole below the waterline

Four former teammates of Lance Armstrong will receive six month bans after they confessed to doping and testified against the seven-time Tour de France winner, according to De Telegraaf.

George Hincapie, Levi Leipheimer, Christian Vande Velde and David Zabriskie are said to have given evidence in the USADA investigation which has charged Armstrong with doping. All four riders are currently taking part in the Tour de France, but in recent weeks, USA Cycling revealed they opted not to be considered for the Olympic Games.

Today's report, which is front-page news, also names Garmin-Sharp boss Jonathan Vaughters. It is not clear whether Vaughters too will face suspension.

"Miraculously, USADA has arranged for the suspensions to begin at the start at the end of the season so that they are able to race both the Tour de France and the Vuelta a Espana," the article states.

In mid June, USADA formally charged Armstrong with doping with the use of evidence gathered in the investigation into potential doping on the United States Postal Service (USPS) (1996-2004), Discovery Channel (2005-2007), Astana (2009) and RadioShack (2010) cycling teams. Johan Bruyneel, Dr. Pedro Celaye, Dr. Luis Garcia del Moral, Dr. Michele Ferrari, and Mr. Pepe Marti are also accused of a variety of doping violations, from the administration of doping products, trafficking, assisting and abetting and covering up.

Within the 15-page letter detailing the charges, USADA pointed to 10 witnesses to the alleged conduct, made up of cyclists and cycling team employees, but until now their identities remained secret.

[El-Reacho]

JV has denied Zabriskie or VDV have got bans. Does any body think these guys might suddenly test positive in the next few weeks. It seems Armstrong's policy with regard to witnesses is to make sure he has an angle to discredit them. The UCI has alot to lose here and might help do this. Maybe I'm getting a tad too cynical....

I think Hincapie is the one that will hurt LA the most. Was Armstrong's right hand man from Motorola right the way through all of his tour victories.

I think this also means that Lance will not be able to use the 'never tested positive' argument any longer, as these guys can say exactly the same thing despite being admitted dopers.