USADA Outlines Armstrong Evidence in Case File
USADA Outlines Armstrong Evidence in Case File
The U.S. Anti-Doping Agency on Wednesday released details of the Lance Armstrong case file it plans to transfer to the UCI on the same day. USADA CEO Travis Tygart detailed the evidence his agency relied upon in banning the former world champion for life in August, including testimony from George Hincapie and 10 other U.S. Postal Service riders and “scientific data and laboratory tests.”
The full case file that USADA officials handed over to the UCI on Wednesday totals more than 1,000 pages and, according to Tygart, includes “sworn testimony from 26 people, including 15 riders with knowledge of the U.S. Postal Service Team and its participants’ doping activities. The evidence also includes direct documentary evidence including financial payments, emails, scientific data and laboratory test results that further prove the use, possession and distribution of performance enhancing drugs by Lance Armstrong and confirm the disappointing truth about the deceptive activities of the USPS Team, a team that received tens of millions of American taxpayer dollars in funding.”
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That’s one lengthy article. There are more articles at VeloNews, and all over the web, I guess. Here’s one from the Wall Street Journal:
Today, I accept responsibility and Usada’s sanctions for participating in the dirty past of cycling. I’ve been racing clean for more than 5 years in a changed and much cleaner sport. I hope that my admission will help to make these changes permanent.
Until recently—or maybe even until today—when people thought about doping, they thought about a guy, by himself, using banned substances to get ahead. What people didn’t realize—what I didn’t realize until after I was already committed to this career—was that doping was organized and everywhere in the peloton. Doping wasn’t the exception, it was the norm.
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What I’m seeing way too often is this kind of crap, (from the WSJ article above):
Right or wrong, in my mind the choice was “do it or go home.” For me that was not a choice.
It was still a choice, damn it, just one you are now embarrassed to admit. That comment was made by Levi Leipheimer, but Tyler Hamilton said something very similar.
This article from VeloNews describes an ESPN broadcast, and includes a link so you can listen to the whole thing.
Lance Armstrong counsel Tim Herman, U.S. Anti-Doping Agency CEO Travis Tygart and ESPN senior writer Bonnie Ford and legal analyst Lester Munson appeared on the sports network’s ‘Outside the Lines’ program Wednesday afternoon.
In an audio podcast of the program, Tygart outlined the USADA case against Lance Armstrong. Afterwards, Herman disputed the agency’s ‘Reasoned Decision,’ claiming that the adjudication process for athletes was unfairly biased.
‘The process is completely rigged. I don’t care what Travis Tygart says,’ said Herman. ‘Christians dealing with the lions in Rome had a better record than athletes dealing with USADA. It’s a rigged system.’
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I think there’s enough information out there now to convince the most diehard Lance Armstrong fans that Lance doped. I think a lot of them will now shift to the opinion that in the big scheme of things, it doesn’t matter. So far, Nike, Oakley, Anheuser-Busch and other sponsors are sticking with him. Lance posted a link to this article on his own webpage: Brandstrong: Why Smart Marketers Aren’t Afraid to Wear Yellow.
VeloNews has a link to the complete report, in case your level of interest is a lot higher than mine.
