Lance Armstrong Investigation: USADA's Case to Move to Arbitration

Various news outlets from the Wall Street Journal to VeloNation are stating that a three-person independent review board has ruled unanimously to move forward with USADA's doping case against Lance Armstrong. In essence, the review board served as a quasi Grand Jury that determines if USADA has enough evidence to pursue sanctions against Lance and the others.

Previously, USADA stated that the arbitration hearing (assuming those involved don't accept the sanctions -- wink, wink) will take place before November of this year. Presumably, now that the case is moving forward, Lance and the others (including Johan Bruyneel and Michele Ferrari, Pedro Celaya, Luis Garcia del Moral and Jose Pepe Marti) will learn more about the evidence USADA has and maybe we will also learn more as well. So far we know that at least ten former team members will testify that they have firsthand knowledge that Lance doped or tried to get others to dope. They have also stated that they have blood results from 2009 and 2010 that show evidence of doping.

As might be expected, Lance and his attorneys are attacking USADA and the review board. Lance has discovered embarrassing personal information about one member of the review board as this quote from VeloNation suggests:

Lance Armstrong Investigation: USADA's Charges and Evidence

Photo from cbsnews.com

I found a copy of USADA's letter to Lance and friends online. From what I've read, some of USADA's evidence came to light from their participation in the grand jury investigation of fraud charges as the Grand Jury heard from the likes of Lance's closest associates including George Hincapie and others. The full letter is included below, along with some key points that I got from it: