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:

Lance Armstrong Investigation: What Do His Reactions Suggest?

Today, numerous news organizations from VeloNation to NY Times have reported that an anonymous source has said that four of Lance's closest associates and former teammates have agreed to testify against him; each of the four are still racing. The reports also said that those who have agreed to testify will receive reduced sentences for their doping. The sentences will last six months and start after the season is over. This is essentially a slap on the hand since the riders have about six months before most of the big races start up again. Here is the list of those reported to be testifying:

Lance Armstrong Investigation: Is it Affecting the Olympic Team?

The rumor mill is speculating that four US cyclists who would normally be considered for the US Olympic cycling team this summer are not going to race because of some involvement in the Lance Armstrong investigation. This rumor comes from the following statement published by USA Cycling:

Lance Armstrong Investigation: It's Not Over Yet...

Photo taken from WSJ.com (Gettty Images)

Just when you thought maybe the Lance Armstrong doping investigation was going to be over, USADA charged him yesterday with being involved in a massive doping conspiracy for over a decade. Now, I have to ask myself, if USADA doesn't have much of a case would they dare dig this up again and take on the amazing Mr. Armstrong again? I mean, doping charges against Lance have been about as effective as efforts to balance the US budget have been! Of course, no criminal charges in serious cases in the US have gone anywhere lately so Lance is joined by all sorts of high profile fraudsters in dodging criminal bullets. As to these charges, they aren't criminal but they could mean he loses his seven yellow jersey titles if they do stick. Here is a summary of the news, hot off the press:

Doping in Cycling and the Mafia

The head of the World Anti Doping Association (WADA), David Howman, gave an interview in New York City that gives some insights into the difficulty of battling doping in cycling and other sports. Here are some of the meatier quotes from an article on CyclingNews, along with my comments:

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:

EPO and the Amgen Tour of California (A Flashback)

As I read in the news that yesterday's first stage of the Amgen Tour of California was cancelled due to snow, I thought back to last year when I blogged about the irony in the name of America's number one stage race. That's right, this is America's "Tour de France" so to speak. I thought it might be fitting to comment again on this irony since the race has retained the name of the marketer of the most abused drug in cycling in it's title: Amgen. The rest of this short post is a flashback from last May 31, 2010:

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:

Lance Armstrong Investigation: Results of New Doping Test will be Crucial

If you've been following the Alberto Contador investigation, you've read that a new doping test has quietly been in development to catch athletes doing blood transfusions. The test is designed to look for signs of transfusions by detecting high amounts of plastic metabolites in urine and blood. Apparently, similar tests have been used for our food supply for some time but now it is being applied to look for blood doping in cyclists. The test has not been approved by WADA yet but the scientists working on it say they are close to establishing the cutoff for evidence that a blood transfusion was used.

While it is clear that Alberto's levels of plastic in his urine probably spell doom to his steak story, it may not be as clear what this test has to do with Lance Armstrong. Well, first, Floyd Landis has alleged that many in the pro peloton, including Lance, turned away from EPO as the preferred doping method in the early 2000's and, instead, reverted to transfusing their blood. The reason for this change was that an effective test for EPO came out. As such, Floyd alleges that Lance, Levi and others transfused their blood around the rest days in the Tour de France. The test for this has been to look for excess mature blood cells relative to immature cells or reticulocytes. Floyd alleges that cyclists got around this test by micro-dosing EPO at night in amounts that would were undetectable by morning. The EPO would lead to new reticulocytes and keep the blood looking normal. This plastic test is a new way to detect blood transfusions.

But, you ask, how can this affect the Lance Armstrong investigation? One very good deterrent to doping that was adopted by pro cycling in the past few years is a requirement that blood and urine samples be maintained for future testing. I recall that at some point in the past decade, cyclists had to agree to this requirement. An article from NY Daily News makes the point that hundreds of Lance Armstrong's urine and blood "specimens are in storage, where they are fair game not only to anti-doping agencies but to" Jeffrey Novitzky and his associates at the FDA who are investigating Lance for fraud. I assume that the same is true for others who Floyd alleges were taking transfusions including Levi Leipheimer, George Hincapie and Dave Zabriskie.

In my opinion, this new test is great news for either Lance or Floyd and horrible news for the other party, depending on who is telling the truth. I believe this new test could be a game changer. In the past, I have said that I didn't think Lance would ever go to jail because he's been able to get the tests that showed he was doping thrown out on technicalities. I've also said that there is so much smoke around him that I don't think he's innocent. 

Assuming this new test is deemed strong evidence of doping and assuming Novitzky gets a hold of several of his specimens, I believe this evidence could resolve any remaining doubts about these allegations. From what I've read, the plastic from these blood bags should still be in the frozen urine and blood. As such, if Novitzky can show a pattern of plasticizers spiking around the rest days to show that Lance was transfusing his blood then Floyd's story will be validated.

I also believe that this evidence could change the tide of belief that he is guilty if enough specimens were tested and showed he had no unusual spikes or amounts of the plastic in his urine or blood. As such, if he is really innocent, he ought to be thrilled at this new test and begging Novitzky to test his urine and blood for these plasticizers. On the other hand, if he is guilty, he ought to be holding a press conference any day now to let the truth prevail.

In the end, this test has serious implications for all those who Floyd alleges were involved in doping. If Levi, George, Dave and others were transfusing their blood they will now want to think twice about how they answer the Grand Jury's questions. There may not be as many urine or blood specimens out there to analyze for these riders as there are for Lance but, this test could lead to time in jail for perjury if they are not telling the truth...

New Cases of Doping in Cycling

VeloNews is reporting today that the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency is about to release the names of "15 to 25 masters, elite and pro cyclists" who have been notified of violations because they allegedly conspired with a former pro cyclist, Joe Papp. The article explains that Papp pleaded guilty earlier this year to distributing HGH and EPO to 187 customers, including cyclists, and implies that Papp entered a plea arrangement and may be providing information on his customer list in order to obtain leniency.

Relatedly, last week, we learned in several news reports that a 41 year old amateur racer, Duane Dickey, was given a lifetime ban for refusing to submit to a doping test. Dickey was found to fail a test years earlier and his refusal this year constituted his second violation. Apparently, Dickey was one of Papp's clients and Papp is now leading the authorities to other clients. Interestingly, Dickey was not a very successful amateur but still was found doping. This suggests doping in cycling may be among the amateur ranks.

The article also says that Papp indicated on Twitter that a pro cyclist in the top 5 at one of the stages in the Tour of Utah this year was doping. The top five at that stage included: Levi Leipheimer, Francisco Mancebo, Ian Boswell, Darren Lill and Phil Zajicek. Levi Leipheimer was also named in the Lance Armstrong investigation when Floyd Landis made his claims earlier this year.

More on Levi Leipheimer's doping allegations

Yesterdays news revealed that Levi Leipheimer's former team manager said that Levi was almost pulled from the Tour de France because his blood off-score coefficient was 132.8 and at 133 you are considered doping. Since I wasn't familiar with this "blood off-score coefficient" I looked in Wikipedia under "Blood Doping" and found the following:

Levi Leipheimer accused of doping

When Floyd Landis accused Lance Armstrong and his US Postal team of widespread doping, he also named other Americans as cheaters including Levi Leipheimer. Apparently, Floyd Landis isn't the only one claiming that Levi Leipheimer also doped. Now Leipheimer's former team manager is saying that Leipheimer was doping after he was on the US Postal team with Lance Armstrong. Here are some key quotes from an article on CyclingNews:

The latest on the Lance Armstrong investigation

Note: click this link for a list of all other posts on the Lance Armstrong fraud investigation.

The NY Times reported yesterday that a grand jury issued subpoenas for several people that Jeffrey Novitzky would like to talk to about the accusations made by Floyd Landis regarding Lance Armstrong's involvement in doping. The article does not list who was subpoened but it does say that several are in the Tour de France right now and that at least two former teammates from Lance's U.S. Postal team have already talked to Novitzky.

We can probably guess who many of the the current Tour riders are that have been issued subpoenas. For sure Levi Leipheimer, Dave Zabriskie, and George Hincapie will get subpoenaed unless they have already talked. My guess is that Novitzky has obtained some corroboration of Landis's story from those he has already spoken to or he would not be getting subpoena help from a grand jury.

The investigation appears to be focusing on the potential that government funds were used to purchase doping products. Armstrong's sponsor around the millenium was the U.S. Postal Service. Apparently, if Novitzky can prove that Landis's allegations are true it could mean Armstrong and Bruyneel broke the law by using the U.S. Postal Service team for illegal doping.

Interestingly, today's NY Times reported that Lance had the following to say about this matter:

Floyd Landis gives doping details to Wall Street Journal

I just received a WSJ News Alert email that reads that Floyd Landis provided hours of interviews with The Wall Street Journal that detail how he had used performing-enhancing drugs extensively during his career. A quick scan of the article gives tons of details about how Landis was introduced to doping when he signed with U.S. Postal and how Lance Armstrong helped him dope. Here is a brief summary based on a quick scan.

EPO and the Amgen Tour of California

I have always thought it was odd (perverse may be a better word) that the Tour of California is sponsored by the drug company that markets the performance enhancing drug that has been most responsible for the doping scandals in professional cycling over the past two decades: EPO. That's right, the "Amgen" in the Amgen Tour of California is the company that markets EPO.