Posted on 05/31/2006 1:50:15 PM PDT by Neville72
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."
The French sports daily L'Equipe reported in August that six of Armstrong's urine samples from 1999, when he won the first of his record seven-straight Tour titles, came back positive for the endurance-boosting hormone EPO when they were retested in 2004.
Armstrong has repeatedly denied using banned substances.
The International Cycling Union appointed Dutch lawyer Emile Vrijman last October to investigate the handling of urine tests from the 1999 Tour by the French national anti-doping laboratory, known by its French acronym LNDD.
Vrijman said Wednesday his report "exonerates Lance Armstrong completely with respect to alleged use of doping in the 1999 Tour de France."
The report also said the UCI had not damaged Armstrong by releasing doping control forms to the French newspaper.
The report said WADA and the LNDD may have "behaved in ways that are completely inconsistent with the rules and regulations of international anti-doping control testing," and may also have been against the law.
Vrijman, who headed the Dutch anti-doping agency for 10 years and later defended athletes accused of doping, worked on the report with Adriaan van der Veen, a scientist with the Dutch Metrology Laboratory.
EPO, or erythropoietin, is a synthetic hormone that boosts the oxygen- carrying capacity of the blood.
Testing for EPO only began in 2001.
Armstrong had challenged the validity of testing samples frozen six years ago, and how they were handled.
Vrijman said a further investigation was needed regarding the leaking of the results to the French paper.
He said a tribunal should be created to "provide a fair hearing" to the people and organizations suspected of misconduct and to decide on sanctions if warranted.
World Anti-Doping Agency chief Dick Pound accused former ICU president Hein Verbruggen of leaking documents about the alleged positive tests to a reporter from L'Equipe. Pound also questioned the union's willingness to fully investigate the allegations.
The anti-doping lab at Chatenay-Malabry has been accused of violating confidentiality regulations.
Mario Zorzoli, the doctor who gave copies of Armstrong's doping control forms to L'Equipe, was suspended by the UCI for one month earlier this year. He has since been reinstated.
The full report was sent to the UCI, the LNDD, the French sports ministry, WADA and Armstrong's lawyer. The International Olympic Committee also had requested a copy.
The accusations against Armstrong raised questions about how frozen samples, routinely held for eight years, should be used.
IOC president Jacques Rogge has said he was willing to have urine samples checked retroactively, but with clear procedures that would have to be set up by WADA.
Mon Dieu!
soccer blew!
Finally. One of the worst cases of sour grapes I've seen.
Loved Lance in _Dodgeball_! :-)
Best news I've heard all day! Gosh, it must really piss-off the French that year after year an American (recovering from cancer, no less) could be so dominant without cheating. I hope Lance has a really good PR guy who'll get this news the coverage it deserves.
Not surprising.
Wasn't it a French judge (in the Olympics) a couple of years back who screwed over 2 Canadian ice skaters and denied them what should have been the gold medal?
Uh Oh,
The Repost Police are coming for me. It was nice knowing all of you.
Too funny. Maybe we could publicly flog the editors of L'Equipe for slandering Lance and settle this issue once and for all: American man are simply superior to French men - even with doping.
Actually it isn't a repost.
And this article has more information than any other article I've seen so far.
Damn! Sometimes the good guys do win!
Ditto.
(P.S. I'll try to send you
a cake with a file in it)
Exactly. A female judge from France went in the tank for Russian pair. She did confess, and if I remember correctly she was banned from the sport for life.
I'm a repeat Repost felon. Three strikes and I'm out. It's off to the Repost SuperMax with me.
Au Revoir.
Lance Armstrong: Quit? You know, once I was thinking of quitting when I was diagnosed with brain, lung and testicular cancer all at the same time. But with the love and support of my friends and family, I got back on the bike and won the Tour de France five times in a row. But I'm sure you have a good reason to quit. So what are you dying of that's keeping you from the finals?
Peter La Fleur: Right now it feels a little bit like... shame.
Lance Armstrong: Well, I guess if a person never quit when the going got tough, they wouldn't anything to regret for the rest of their life. Well good luck to you Peter. I'm sure this decision won't haunt you forever.
The lesson here is obvious. If you're competing in a sport with French judges then you should expect corruption, and if you're an American expect to be screwed over.
Lance Armstrong should sue the bastards for defamation of character, including libel and slander. Then he should sue for impersonating a human being.
The difference between Lance and the French doping authorities is now the French doping authorities are eating crow.
Now you done it!
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