I'm Constantly amazed

Once again the attacks on this man begins. Lance Armstrong
is an amazing man and has done more than his share to bring
Cancer to the forefront of people's consiousness

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August 25, 2005, 22:15


As is often the case when doping allegations are made, the debate over whether seven times Tour de France champion Lance Armstrong took EPO in 1999 is rapidly moving from the scientific sphere into the legal.

Whatever the truth of the matter, and Armstrong strongly denies any wrongdoing, the report in L'Equipe that the American's urine samples contained the banned blood-boosting substance is very unlikely to lead to any retroactive sanctions.

Officials from the organisations involved - cycling's ruling body, the World Anti Doping Agency, French sports ministry officials and Tour de France organisers - agree normal anti-doping proceedings have not been followed.

Jacques De Ceaurriz, the head of the Chatenay-Malabry laboratory which conducted the tests, made it clear they were carried out for only scientific purposes and had no legal value because only one sample was tested.

According to WADA rules, no sanction can be taken against an athlete if one sample, rather than the normal two, shows traces of a banned substance.

The samples have been frozen since being taken during the 1999 tour, the first won by Armstrong. A test to detect EPO did not exist at the time.

Armstrong, who has denied ever taking performance-enhancing drugs during his career and has never failed a dope test, summed up the legal implications on Wednesday.

Repeated allegations
Armstrong, who has had to face repeated doping allegations by French media since his first victory in 1999, hinted he might not take legal action over the French newspaper report. He is currently suing the authors of a book alleging he took drugs.

The Texan, a cancer survivor deeply involved in working with others suffering from the disease, said he had better things to do with his money than indulge in another costly court battle.

Armstrong is currently involved in a legal case against a Texas insurance company who have refused to pay him bonuses he was entitled to after his 2002, 2003 and 2004 Tour victories after arguing the legitimacy of the wins could be questioned.

Regardless of their scientific validity, the way in which the results of the tests on Armstrong's 1999 samples have been obtained is in breach of anti-doping procedures.

As for Tour organisers, they insisted they had no power to ban or suspend an athlete on doping offences because UCI and WADA were the only institutions entitled to take action.

Christian Prudhomme, the Tour de France deputy director, said the big difference was that in the BALCO case, US athletes were banned after being shown undeniable evidence of testing which had been properly carried out. Some also confessed. By comparison, confusion rather than clarity surrounds the L'Equipe accusations.

Armstrong quoted "four or five anti-doping experts around the world that have gone on the record and said this is crazy".

De Ceaurriz, the man who devised the EPO test, insists he is one hundred percent sure the tests were valid.

The problem is that the French scientists tested bottles bearing numbers on them, not names, and these names would never have been leaked if proper protocol had been followed. - Reuters