Lance Armstrong....SI blows the lid.......

[Bennyboy]

Sports Illustrated is reporting new information about embattled, seven-time Tour de France winner Lance Armstrong, who is the focus of a federal grand jury inquiry in Los Angeles. The investigation is headed by Jeff Novitzky of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, who previously investigated Barry Bonds and Marion Jones.

Agents have been looking into whether Armstrong was involved in an organized doping operation as a member of the team sponsored by the U.S. Postal Service from 1999 to 2004, and since August the grand jury has been hearing testimony from Armstrong's associates and confidants. In light of those proceedings, SI writers Selena Roberts and David Epstein reviewed hundreds of pages of documents and interviewed dozens of sources in Europe, New Zealand and the U.S. for a story in the Jan. 24 issue of the magazine, which will be available on newsstands Wednesday.

According to the story, "If a court finds that Armstrong won his titles while taking performance-enhancing drugs, his entourage may come to be known as the domestiques of the saddest deception in sports history."

Among SI's revelations:

• In the late 1990s, according to a source with knowledge of the government's investigation of Armstrong, the Texan gained access to a drug, in clinical trial, called HemAssist, developed by Baxter Healthcare Corp. HemAssist was to be used for cases of extreme blood loss. In animal studies, it had been shown to boost the blood's oxygen-carrying capacity, without as many risks as EPO. (Armstrong, though his lawyer, denies ever taking HemAssist.)

• One of the perks of traveling with Armstrong, former USPS rider Floyd Landis recalls, was frequent trips on private airline charters. Private airports often subject travelers to less stringent customs checks. But Landis tells SI about the day in 2003 that he, Armstrong and team members flew into St. Moritz, where customs officials requested that they open their duffel bags for a search. "Lance had a bag of drugs and s---," says Landis. "They wanted to search it, which was out of the ordinary." Sifting through Armstrong's bag, agents found syringes and drugs with labels written in Spanish. As Landis recounts, Armstrong then asked a member of his contingent to convince the agents that the drugs were vitamins and that the syringes were for vitamin injections. The agents "looked at us sideways," says Landis, "but let us through." (Armstrong denies that this incident ever occurred.)



Read more: http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2011/more/01/18/lance.armstrong/index.html#ixzz1BQkvniPZ


http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2011/more/01/18/lance.armstrong/index.html

[marmar]

1. I've never believed Lance's story......but I think he convinced himself he was innocent.

nt

[slackmaster]

2. WWGPS?

BTW Floyd has come clean. I think he has the potential to be a real stand-up guy.

[ananda]

3. I always thought Lance Armstrong was using performance enhancing drugs...

... and I've always wanted to know how he got away with it.

Now it's starting to come clear.

[somone]

4. Is it significant that the grand jury is in L.A., instead of Austin

where he's worshipped like a god?

[TlalocW]

5. I have never been one for having heroes

I can admire someone for the good works that they've done, but I don't put them on a pedestal because they are, after all, only human with the same weaknesses and foibles we all have.

But if I did, I would never have a sports figure for a hero. As far as I can tell, every sport is rampant with drug use, and any new records set by athletes since the 80s probably ought to have asterisks by them denoting possible usage of enhancement performance drugs.

TlalocW

[Gregorian]

6. I was in a race with Levi Leipheimer a few months ago.

All I can say is he rode like a superhuman. And I don't think one rides at their level without doping. Even if it's not doping per se, it's everything in the gray zone just below it.

For what it's worth, Floyd Landis also claims that they were all doping at the Tour de France. And then some. Transfusions.


--Although, now that I sit down and think about it, someone I know who was in that same race rode right up there with Levi, and I know this guy doesn't dope. So, I'm full of it. :)

[trekbiker]

7. I cant even watch professional cycling anymore

For years I believed Armstrong. Not anymore.

The last honest champion was probably Greg LeMond. I remember an interview where he described how over the course of just a couple years around 1990 the entire peloton dramatically increased in speed and endurance. Miquel Indurain?? (5 time winner)... hell yes he was doping. Ullrich?? probably. Pantani? doping is probably what killed him. Armstrong, definately!!

if you're not doping or cheating in some fashion you have no chance in the higher ranks of pro cycling.

[Chemical Bill]

8. I don't want my tax money used to investigate sports doping...

and I especially don't want it used to leak info to the press so that they can try Lance in the media. Knowing that they all dope doesn't make my unpaid furlough day any easier.

Bill

[pscot]

9. One event in which Landis accuses Armstrong of

doping was the 2002 Tour of Switzerland, a race in which Armstrong did not ride. Armstrong has been tried and found guilty, in the press, a hundred times, but nothing has ever been proven. As evidenced by the comments in this thread, he seems to be a lightning rod for envy and hate. Landis, who actually was caught doping, is embraced as a repentant sinner.

I remember one tour in which Armstrong and Ulrich were racing in the Alps. They were very close in the standings and on the road. On a descent, Ulrich missed a turn and went head over heels over a barrier into some brush. Miraculously he was unhurt, but his fall gave Armstrong a chance to open up a big lead. Instead of continuing, Armstrong stopped to make sure Jan was OK, then waited still longer, giving Ulrich a chance to climb back onto the road and get back on the bike. It was flat out, the most impressive bit of sportsmanship I've ever seen. Oh. And Armstrong's foundation has raised $325 million for cancer research and treatment. If they bring him dow, I will be very sad.

[Doctor_J]

10. I am acquanited qith a guy who was responsible for paying

some of Lance's performance bonuses. He has taken armstrong to court, claiming that the gold medals were unfairly won, and therefore the bonuses should not be paid. Very strange case.

[bhikkhu]

11. The whole doping issue is pretty difficult.

As a cyclist and follower of the sport since the 80's, there has hardly been a year without some big scandal or revelation. If I go back and watch the old races the enjoyment isn't the same, as there riders who were later outed or who outed themselves are inevitably there, driving the action. Armstrong had the odd position of being an almost self-righteously clean rider, in spite of regular accusations. I think he was probably just smarter about it, and certainly very talented and determined besides, and I'm not sure I care whether "all is revealed" or not.

I definitely don't care to watch another long farce of a trial like Landis had, which resolves nothing but embitters everybody.

[BB1]

12. Good, bring him down, I say

as a European, I think Armstrong has corrupted the game. Whether or not by doping up (and I have reasons to believe he did), then by screwing around with 'professionalism' in the Tour. Where's the fun now, Lance?

[skepticscott]

13. I guess Lance was right

It's not about the bike. It's about the drugs.

[fasttense]

14. Investigating people who cheat in sports events seems rather silly,

When we ignore those who torture and murder.

[Blue_Tires]

15. interesting...but where was SI YEARS ago when a little investigating

would have been more timely??

and I thought everyone just assumed for the past 10-15+ years that all the riders were on something, and Armstrong's rivals were more upset at being inferior dopers...

[Skittles]

16. all I know is

when he denies ever using such stuff, he is absolutely lying

[Stargazer09]

17. The Onion nailed it

Non-Doping Cyclists Finish Tour de France

http://www.onionsportsnetwork.com/articles/nondoping-cyclists-finish-tour-de-france,2268/

As much as I want to admire professional cyclists, I can't believe that they are not doping. They might not get caught, but they aren't clean. It's a game. The cyclists do everything that they can get away with, and the testers try to keep up with the newest cheats.

It's sad. To me, there's nothing sexier than a healthy athlete. But a doper/cheater is not attractive.