Armstrong Case Revealed
The United States Anti-Doping Agency released its file today to the Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI), cycling’s world governing body, with a recommendation that Lance Armstrong be stripped of his 7 Tour de France titles.
The accompanying USADA press statement lists 11 athletes who gave testimony in the case against Armstrong, and names the athletes: Frankie Andreu, Michael Barry, Tom Danielson, Tyler Hamilton, George Hincapie, Floyd Landis, Levi Leipheimer, Stephen Swart, Christian Vande Velde, Jonathan Vaughters and David Zabriskie.
Hincapie released his own statement, which included an apology, on his website contemporaneous with the release of USADA’s letter naming him as one of those admitting doping.
Armstrong remains banned from all federation sport, although he has competed in triathlons each of the past two weeks. Those triathlons are not sanctioned by any federation and therefore are not subject to the authority of any anti-doping agency.
USADA’s statement says that, “the active riders have been suspended and disqualified appropriately in line with the rules,” but does not detail what those suspensions are, nor what other punitive actions might be taken against them, such as the stripping of past titles or monetary forfeiture.
All the riders do now or at one time belonged to the team with which Armstrong was associated throughout most of his career. Preparing for upcoming USADA hearings are that team’s directeur sportif, Johan Bruyneel, Dr. Pedro Celaya, and Jose “Pepe” Marti, the team trainer.
For those interested, there is a download of the entire 202-page document detaining the reasoning behind USADA's case against Armstrong.
