Lance Armstrong Investigation: Novitzky May be Taking a Vacation

Today's CyclingNews has an article that talks in length about the history of Jeffrey Novitzky's investigations of doping in sports. If you've read the many articles that describe Novitzky's history as an investigator, there is not a lot that is new in this regard. However, the article does make one main assertion that is new. The article claims to have sources that say Novitzky is heading to Europe, presumably in pursuit of evidence against Lance Armstrong. Here is the key quote that I'm referring to:

In the next few weeks, good authority has it, Novitzky will travel to Europe to pursue his and perhaps professional sport’s most significant doping probe since BALCO. Perhaps, though, is the operative word, for the federal agent refused to confirm all talk of his European séjour when contacted by Cyclingnews in late October.

 The article doesn't say what they mean by "good authority" and it is unclear why "perhaps" is such an operative word if they have good authority. So which is it CyclingNews? Good authority or speculation or what?

Good authority or not, my guess is that Novitzky's team will go to Europe and get data from the labs. They will probably also get testimony from various sources over there. He may talk to bus drivers, masseuses, hotel people, doctors, nurses, pharmacies, and others. All in an effort to build a case that Lance Armstrong did defraud the government and did use government funds to buy doping products. Maybe he will also get a few of Lance's many samples tested for plasticizers while he's there.

I expect that if Lance left any stone unturned, Novitzky is going to find it. However, we probably won't know what he's found until Lance knows. Nor will the many people around Lance that he is interviewing. Novitzky and the Grand Jury are being very good at keeping quiet. That's good for me as I'm too busy to be preoccupied by blogging about fraud in cycling right now.

Get ready though, sometime in the next few months, I expect charges to be filed before Spring (I've read they are hoping for January) and then we'll learn whether the sources know what they are talking about...I suspect they do.

In the meantime, I also wonder what's happening to the list of people who Joe Papp sold performance enhancing drugs to. It takes time to really dig into these things. Like searching for a needle in a haystack, or in Novitzky's case, a needle in a dumpster...