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:

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:

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:

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 Returns Olympic Gold

Now that Tyler Hamilton has publicly stated that he has personal knowledge of Lance Armstrong doping, some of the question people are asking are as follows:

1. Is Hamilton lying again or is this finally the truth?
2. Can Hamilton be put in jail for admitting to doping?
3. What motives might there be for Hamilton to make these claims?

These are valid questions that will undoubtedly be brought up if Jeffrey Novitzky's investigation of Lance Armstrong ever gets out of the Grand Jury. However, today we saw at least one consequence for Hamilton....

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

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: Leaks About Scope

Several news articles are reporting that Jeffrey Novitzky's investigation into doping and fraud related to Lance Armstrong has led to a formal request from U.S. authorities for assistance by foreign prosecutors. This leak is being attributed to about a half-dozen people who are supposedly familiar with the case but requested anonymity and who were interviewed by AP reporters in the U.S. and Europe. According to these sources, the request was in the works since late 2010 but has been formalized in the past month. It's also being reported that the "evidence request specifically targets U.S. Postal and mentions Armstrong by name."

While this news about a formal request, in itself, is interesting in that it shows progress is still being made, it isn't very surprising to me. It was previously reported that Novitzky's team went to France late last year and met with officials from France, Belgium and Italy and that the officials said they would help with the investigation. However, some other information is being reported in these articles that, if true, I find more interesting. For example...

Lance Armstrong Investigation: French to Give Armstrong's 1999 Samples to Novitzky

Today's cycling news sources are saying that the "French anti-doping agency (AFLD) will provide American federal investigators with Lance Armstrong's urine samples from the 1999 Tour de France."
These are the same samples that I blogged about last fall in discussing Dr. Michael Ashenden's statement that "there is no doubt in my mind he (Lance Armstrong) took EPO during the '99 Tour."

An article in CyclingWeekly states:

Lance Armstrong Investigation: What the SI Article Tells Us

Now that the full version of the SI article is out, it looks like we had the most significant news in yesterday's synopsis. Although much of what SI wrote about is old news, they did give a lot of new details that we didn't have before. In addition, at least one new item from the article is a potential bomb shell for Lance in terms of the Novitzky investigation: the HemAssist issue. Here is why...

Domestic Cyclists Caught Doping

So I've been waiting for some news from the Joe Papp investigation and yesterday we heard about two riders who were sanctioned for EPO use: domestic pro, Charles "Chuck" Coyle, and masters rider, Neal Schubel. As for Coyle, he not only used EPO but he also purchased insulin growth factor, whatever that is. Coyle raced for several pro teams. A VeloNation article discussing Coyle said that his team's website listed some of his career highlights as:

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:

More doping among amateur cyclists.

The Giro d'Italia (aka the Tour of Italy) is one of the biggest stage races in pro cycling along with the Tour de France and a few other races known as the "grand tours." In an amateur version of the race, known as the Baby Giro, the organizers have gone to great lengths to encourage the riders to avoid any form of doping. An article in Velonation reports that the leading team in this year's race was caught running a serious doping operation and was immediately kicked out of the race. Here are a few quotes:

The legal implications of Floyd Landis' accusations against Lance Armstrong

Sports Illustrated has a good article written by a law professor that outlines the legal implications of Floyd Landis' accusations against Lance Armstrong. The government, under the FDA, is investigating Armstrong's role in various criminal activities. The article discusses potential crimes that Jeffrey Novitzky's investigation could charge Lance with. The author also discusses the statute of limitations, Kristin Armstrong's obligations and whether Lance could sue Floyd for slander.