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New York Times
May 31, 2006
Lance Armstrong Is Cleared of Doping Charge
By SAMUEL ABT
PARIS, May 31 — A Dutch investigator appointed by the International Cycling Union cleared Lance Armstrong today on charges of doping during the 1999 Tour de France, the first of seven he won consecutively, and criticized international anti-doping authorities.
The investigator, Emile Vrijman, who headed the Dutch anti-doping agency for 10 years, said his report "exonerates Lance Armstrong completely" in the 1999 race. No other Tours were involved in his investigation.
Armstrong, a 34-year-old Texan who retired from the sport last July to devote himself to the fight against cancer, has strongly denied using banned substances during the 1999 Tour or any other race.
Vrijman was highly critical of both the World Anti-Doping Agency and the French laboratory that tested the rider's frozen urine samples and reported that they contained traces of the banned performance-enhancing drug EPO.
His report, made public in Amsterdam, said that both the agency and the laboratory might have "behaved in ways that are completely inconsistent with the rules and regulations of international anti-doping control testing" and may also have been illegal. His specific objections were not immediately clear.
The 132-page report recommended that a board should be formed to discuss whether the World Anti-Doping Agency had violated legal and ethical standards and to consider "appropriate sanctions to remedy the violations" if any.
In Canada, The Associated Press reported that the agency's head, **** Pound, said that he had not received the report yet but that based on what he had read in news accounts, he was critical of Vrijman's findings.
"It's clearly everything we feared," Pound told The A.P. from Montreal. "There was no interest in determining whether the samples Armstrong provided were positive or not. We were afraid of that from the very beginning.
"Whether the samples were positive or not, I don't know how a Dutch lawyer with no expertise came to a conclusion that one of the leading laboratories in the world messed up on the analysis. To say Armstrong is totally exonerated seems strange," Pound said.
The laboratory in the Paris suburb of Chatenay-Malabry has been accused of violating confidentiality regulations.
The French daily sports newspaper L'Equipe reported in August that six of Armstrong's urine samples from 1999 came back positive for EPO when they were retested in 2004. A test to detect EPO did not come into use until 2001.
EPO, or erythropoietin, is a synthetic hormone that increases the oxygen-carrying capacity of the blood.
The results were made known to a reporter for L'Equipe by a medical officer of the International Cycling Union.
From its headquarters in Switzerland, the union said that it "firmly deplores the behavior of Mr. Vrijman, who has prematurely voiced" his conclusions.
The union added that it "underlines its deep displeasure with regards to the regrettable development of this case."
May 31, 2006
Lance Armstrong Is Cleared of Doping Charge
By SAMUEL ABT
PARIS, May 31 — A Dutch investigator appointed by the International Cycling Union cleared Lance Armstrong today on charges of doping during the 1999 Tour de France, the first of seven he won consecutively, and criticized international anti-doping authorities.
The investigator, Emile Vrijman, who headed the Dutch anti-doping agency for 10 years, said his report "exonerates Lance Armstrong completely" in the 1999 race. No other Tours were involved in his investigation.
Armstrong, a 34-year-old Texan who retired from the sport last July to devote himself to the fight against cancer, has strongly denied using banned substances during the 1999 Tour or any other race.
Vrijman was highly critical of both the World Anti-Doping Agency and the French laboratory that tested the rider's frozen urine samples and reported that they contained traces of the banned performance-enhancing drug EPO.
His report, made public in Amsterdam, said that both the agency and the laboratory might have "behaved in ways that are completely inconsistent with the rules and regulations of international anti-doping control testing" and may also have been illegal. His specific objections were not immediately clear.
The 132-page report recommended that a board should be formed to discuss whether the World Anti-Doping Agency had violated legal and ethical standards and to consider "appropriate sanctions to remedy the violations" if any.
In Canada, The Associated Press reported that the agency's head, **** Pound, said that he had not received the report yet but that based on what he had read in news accounts, he was critical of Vrijman's findings.
"It's clearly everything we feared," Pound told The A.P. from Montreal. "There was no interest in determining whether the samples Armstrong provided were positive or not. We were afraid of that from the very beginning.
"Whether the samples were positive or not, I don't know how a Dutch lawyer with no expertise came to a conclusion that one of the leading laboratories in the world messed up on the analysis. To say Armstrong is totally exonerated seems strange," Pound said.
The laboratory in the Paris suburb of Chatenay-Malabry has been accused of violating confidentiality regulations.
The French daily sports newspaper L'Equipe reported in August that six of Armstrong's urine samples from 1999 came back positive for EPO when they were retested in 2004. A test to detect EPO did not come into use until 2001.
EPO, or erythropoietin, is a synthetic hormone that increases the oxygen-carrying capacity of the blood.
The results were made known to a reporter for L'Equipe by a medical officer of the International Cycling Union.
From its headquarters in Switzerland, the union said that it "firmly deplores the behavior of Mr. Vrijman, who has prematurely voiced" his conclusions.
The union added that it "underlines its deep displeasure with regards to the regrettable development of this case."
