Lance Armstrong Investigation: Sports Illustrated Story

Sports Illustrated (SI) posted on their website details of a story coming out tomorrow about Lance Armstrong. Although we will have to wait until the full story is released to get all the details, here is a short list of the significant allegations that SI reported today and that appear to be new:

• The raid on Yarolslav Popovych's home showed that, as of 2009, Lance and his team has continued a relationship with the controversial doping Doctor, Michele Ferrari, even though he claimed to have cut ties in 2004.
• In the late 1990s, Lance had access to and, implicitly, used a substitute for EPO known as HemAssist that was in clinical trials.
• Another of Armstrong's teammates, Stephen Swart, alleged that Armstrong was the instigator in getting other members of the Motorola team to use EPO in 1995; details of what the team did to test their hematocrit levels and to conceal their activities were given.
• Floyd Landis is claiming that Lance was once caught going through customs with a bag of syringes and PEDs.
• Several of Lance's tests in the 1990's indicated that he was using testosterone but managed to avoid being sanctioned; the article alleges that U.S. doping officials were reluctant to prosecute dopers at this time.

I also heard through the grapevine that the SI article may give information showing that Lance has abused his private foundation, Livestrong, by leasing the private jet to Livestrong so Lance can fly around the world and pass the cost through the foundation. I guess we'll find out tomorrow what other allegations SI has managed to document...