My Analysis of the Lance Armstrong-Oprah Winfrey Interview

Photo taken from WSJ.com

I was traveling last night and was unable to watch the interview last night but I read some articles on what happened in Lance Armstrong's interview by Oprah Winfrey including one that gives all his responses on the Wall Street Journal. It's interesting reading for sure. Here are some thoughts:

Lance Armstrong Investigation: More on the Conspiracy

You may be feeling a bit worn down on all the Lance Armstrong stuff in the news. I know I have been. However, today, I read a few things that I found pretty fascinating. One was an article about Jörg Jaksche. The other was an article about Lance's efforts to help both Landis and Hamilton in their efforts to lie about their doping. Here are some excerpts:

It’s Only Lying About Drugs (A Guest Post)

Lance Armstrong (from the internet)

Note: The following is a guest post by R. Duke Dougherty, Jr. Fraudbytes publishes high quality guest posts on fraud-related topics.

If I doze off while reading a cycling article, I run the risk of dreaming about Lance Armstrong. The dream goes like this: I’m watching TV while Armstrong addresses a press conference. Armstrong gives his questioner “the look” and angrily wags a finger as he says, “I did not admit to drug abuse around that woman...Ms. Andreu.” Then my head bobs up a little, but I don’t wake up. Instead, I see Armstrong angrily wagging his finger again as he says, “I did not give used syringes to that masseuse...Ms. O’Reilly.”

Lance Armstrong Investigation: LiveStrong Gets Involved

Photo from Wall Street Journal

News reports suggest that LiveStrong donors should rest well knowing that their funds given to help fight cancer are being used to lobby Congress to pressure USADA in its investigation of Lance Armstrong.

Today's Wall Street Journal reported that a Congressional staff member has confirmed that "The...Texas-based charity known as Livestrong, sent a lobbyist to Capitol Hill last week to discuss the funding for the agency that has accused the retired cycling champion of cheating to win the Tour de France." Here are more details from the Journal:

Lance Armstrong Investigation: Lifetime Bans and Real Heroes

While Lance Armstrong is fighting USADA to try to stop them from taking away his seven Tour de France titles, three of those who have been accused with Lance as being part of a doping conspiracy have, apparently, quietly conceded to receive lifetime bans from any involvement in cycling. According to VeloNation, the three include two doctors: Michele Ferrari and Luis Garcia del Moral and the team trainer, Pepe Marti. The article continued by saying:

What Do I Have Against Lance?

I was told by a friend that someone asked him what I have against Lance. Maybe others have also wondered that. Before I get to that, let me comment on some other news in pro cycling.

Lance Armstrong Investigation: What Did We Learn?

As you've probably heard, it was announced yesterday that the Grand Jury investigation that involved Lance Armstrong's alleged criminal activity on the U.S. Postal Service cycling team has been closed without any charges. When this investigation first opened, I remember talking with a friend about what would come of it. I thought at the time that the most likely scenario was that we would learn a lot more about Lance and that his reputation would be seriously damaged but that it was unlikely that he would find himself in jail. I never totally thought it was impossible that Lance would end up in jail but I thought it was a very long shot (like half court at the buzzer). After all, if they couldn't find his blood or urine with drugs in it then it would probably be hard to make the charges stick.

In my view, Lance's record has become extremely tainted from the news of the past two years. If you believe the saying that where there is smoke there is fire, then you have to observe all the smoke that came from this investigation and conclude there must be something causing it. The following points are what I think are some of the biggest stains on his record that came from this investigation. As I look at the list, I have to believe that those who followed the investigation will likely have lost most, if not all, respect for Lance (unless they are in complete denial and hero worship). Here is my summary (with links to the top posts on the topic) of the most interesting, and in many cases the most damaging, tidbits to come out from this investigation:

Lance Armstrong Investigation: New Charges May Be in the Works

(photo taken from ESPN website)

The incident that I blogged about yesterday regarding a hostile confrontation between Lance Armstrong and his former friend and chief lieutenant, Tyler Hamilton, may be more serious than Lance had imagined. Tyler's attorneys have reported the incident to federal authorities since it potentially involves witness tampering. A few more details are coming out today. For example...

Lance Armstrong Investigation: Tyler and Lance Have Confrontation

(photo courtesy of NBC website)

Abe Streep of Outside Magazine is reporting that Tyler Hamilton took a group of cyclists on a bike tour for the magazine and then took them to dinner at the Cache Cache Restaurant in Aspen, Colorado. The reports say that Hamilton mistakenly thought Armstrong was out of town. To his surprise, when Tyler was leaving the restroom, an arm blocked the hallway and...

Lance Armstrong Investigation: 60 Minutes Responds

Yesterday's news was that Lance Armstrong's legal team was asking for an apology from 60 Minutes. I mentioned that I wasn't going to hold my breath waiting for 60 Minutes to tell Lance they are sorry. News reports are now publishing the response from the program. Here is what is being reported that they said:

Lance Armstrong Investigation: Odds and Ends

In today's news, various sources are reporting that Lance's lawyers are demanding an on-air apology from 60 Minutes. I personally am not holding my breath...

Well, aside from that news, I have had questions about the Lance Armstrong investigation asked to me from some friends and thought I'd document my thoughts to these questions. Some of you may have had similar questions or may hear similar questions as the public starts hearing more about the investigation. For example, a friend in my neighborhood asked me "How could he be guilty when he was tested so many times?" My response...

Lance Armstrong Investigation: More Evidence Coming Out

Several news sources are reporting today that the head of the Swiss lab that was involved in testing Lance Armstrong's urine during the 2001 Tour of Switzerland, Martial Saugy, has confirmed that he did meet with both Lance and his manager, Johan Bruyneel.

This is consistent with the story that Tyler Hamilton and Floyd Landis have told regarding Lance having a positive test for EPO in the 2001 Tour of Switzerland. However, details of the meeting as told by Saugy, if correct, show that Hamilton's understanding was mistaken in some respects. Here is Saugy's story:

Lance Armstrong Investigation: Latest News

It sounds like Jeffrey Novizky's investigation of Lance Armstrong will probably be in the news quite a bit over the summer as the Grand Jury is likely to indict Lance. This news comes from Lance's home town newspaper, The Statesman, which quotes several "legal experts" on the case. Here are some quotes from the article:

Lance Armstrong Investigation: Bill Strickland Talks Again

CBS News is reporting that Bill Strickland, editor of Bicycling Magazine was on "The Early Show" today and commented on the latest news about Lance Armstrong. According to the report Strickland said that " he has evidence that Armstrong had used drugs."

We have known since April that Strickland believes Lance doped. However, in this report it appears that Strickland has evidence to support his belief that he has not before revealed. From the report, it sounds like Strickland discovered evidence of Lance's alleged failed test in the Tour of Switzerland. In particular, it's being reported that Strickland said the following:

(Strickland) told co-anchor Chris Wragge, "I wrote a story in May for Bicycling ... that said I thought he was guilty, I knew he had doped. In the course of investigating around him, I finally found the conviction. So I've known for awhile. This is just inevitable, I think."

This statement was made in the context of the claim first made by Floyd Landis and later by Tyler Hamilton that Lance failed a doping test in the 2001 Tour of Switzerland. Both Landis and Hamilton claim that Lance was able to hide that test through cooperation with the UCI and the Swiss drug lab that found the result.

Hopefully, more of what Strickland was referring to will come out soon...

Lance Armstrong Investigation: What I Learned from 60 Minutes

I watched three 60 Minutes videos about the Lance Armstrong investigation, including a segment on 60 Minutes Overtime. In these videos, Tyler Hamilton states that the claims he made on 60 Minutes are what he told the Grand Jury that is investigating Lance Armstrong for his use of performance enhancing drugs while racing on the U.S. Postal Team. Here are a few claims made by Tyler and other takeaways from the videos:

Lance Armstrong Investigation: George Hincapie's Response

CBS News reported yesterday that when Jeffrey Novitzky's investigation brought Lance Armstrong's number one lieutenant and close friend, George Hincapie, in to testify, that Hincapie confirmed that Lance had doped by using EPO and testosterone. Here is the quote from the CBS website where you can read about it and also watch a video that was shown on the news yesterday:

Lance Armstrong Investigation: George Hincapie Adds His Witness that Lance Doped

An incredibly credible witness add his testimony to Floyd Landis and Tyler Hamilton. Prior to today, we had Tyler and Floyd as eye witnesses to Lance's doping. These two will probably not even be on the witness stand in a case brought against Lance since the jury will have to hear hours of testimony where these two have lied vehemently in the past about their own personal doping.

However, anyone who knows cycling would say that the biggest witness against Lance would be his top lieutenant, George Hincapie. George has never failed a drug test and was on Lance's team every year that Lance won the Tour de France. So, if George testified, as is being reported by VeloNation, that he saw Lance doping, then anyone who is still holding out hope that Lance was clean should have no doubts that he doped now. This is at least the fourth teammate who has testified against Lance, if you include Frankie Andreu. Frankie had some comments about todays news too.VeloNews reported that Frankie had the following to say:

Lance Armstrong Investigation: Tyler Hamilton Spills the Beans

The news broke today that CBS's 60 Minutes has been conducting a six-month investigation of doping in cycling. The full program will be aired this Sunday. For now, the link above has a short part of Tyler's interview. They interviewed Tyler Hamilton and Frankie Andreu and, undoubtedly, others. We probably already knew what Frankie would say but Tyler is shown telling 60 Minutes host, Scott Peller, that he saw Lance "inject (EPO) more than one time." As quoted on VeloNation

Lance Armstrong Investigation: A Doping History of Lance's Tour Teams

FraudBytes encourages guest posts. The following post was written by Mark Fellows, part owner of Kinetic Cycles in Elk Grove, California. Mark originally wrote this commentary on May 21st, 2010 after Floyd Landis alleged that Lance Armstrong was involved in systematic doping for many years. He has updated the post now that Lance Armstrong has officially retired from racing again.


As I’ve read and listened to the press conferences regarding Floyd Landis's accusations along with the denials, the blogs, and other commentary on Lance Armstrong's involvement in doping, I decided I wanted to take a little different slant and provide a few other things to think about. First, these facts should be read in the following context:

More from the dopers from the Papp investigation

Last week I blogged about two individuals who were caught purchasing performance enhancing drugs after officials apparently obtained leads from Joe Papp's records. As in the past, the reaction we typically hear is some story about why they are innocent. We've heard it from numerous top American pro cyclists including Tyler Hamilton, Floyd Landis and even Lance Armstrong with the 2005 tests of his 1999 specimens showing EPO in his urine. More recently, Alberto Contador is claiming innocence too.

Now, since these guys were not caught with drug tests they can't use some conspiracy theory about the French labs having some reason to frame them or some Spanish farmer who put the drugs in their beef. Neither can they claim they took a supplement that had the drug and they weren't aware of it. Instead, they need a new story. Here it is: