France - Lance Armstrong cheated

When London beat paris to host the 2012 Olympics, the Paris mayor accused the London bid of cheating, even though HE himself cheated, but failed, to get the Games for Paris.

Now, the French are accusing Tour de France winner Lance Armstrong of cheating -

Tour de France Head: Armstrong Needs to Come Clean
Wednesday, August 24, 2005

PARIS — The director of the Tour de France (search) said it was a "proven scientific fact" that Lance Armstrong (search) had a performance-boosting drug in his body during his 1999 Tour win, and that the seven-time champion owed fans an explanation.

In a story Wednesday, Jean-Marie Leblanc praised the French sports daily L'Equipe for an investigation that reported that six urine samples provided by Armstrong during the 1999 Tour tested positive for the red blood cell-booster EPO (search). The newspaper on Tuesday accused Armstrong of using EPO during his first Tour win in 1999.

"For the first time — and these are no longer rumors or insinuations, these are proven scientific facts — someone has shown me that in 1999, Armstrong had a banned substance called EPO in his body," Leblanc told the paper.

"The ball is now in his camp. Why, how, by whom? He owes explanations to us and to everyone who follows the tour," Leblanc said. "What L'Equipe revealed shows me that I was fooled. We were all fooled."

Armstrong, a frequent target of L'Equipe, vehemently denied the allegations on Tuesday, calling the article "tabloid journalism."

"I will simply restate what I have said many times: I have never taken performance-enhancing drugs," he said on his Web site.

L'Equipe reported that six urine samples provided by the cancer-surviving American during the 1999 Tour tested positive for the red blood cell-booster EPO. The drug, formally known as erythropoietin (search), was on the list of banned substances at the time, but there was no effective test to detect it.

The allegations surfaced six years later because EPO tests on the 1999 samples were carried out only last year — when scientists at a lab outside Paris used them for research to perfect EPO testing. The national anti-doping laboratory in Chatenay-Malabry said it promised to hand its finding to the World Anti-Doping Agency (search), provided it was never used to penalize riders.

Five-time cycling champion Miguel Indurain (search) said he couldn't understand why scientists would use samples from the 1999 Tour for their tests.

"That seems bizarre, and I don't know who would have the authorization to do it," he told L'Equipe. "I don't even know if it's legal to keep these samples."

L'Equipe's investigation was based on the second set of two samples used in doping tests. The first set were used in 1999 for analysis at the time. Without those samples, any disciplinary action against Armstrong would be impossible, French Sports Minister Jean-Francois Lamour (search) said.

Lamour said he was forced to have doubts about L'Equipe's report because he had not seen the originals of some of the documents that appeared in the paper.

"I do not confirm it," he told RTL radio. But he added: "If what L'Equipe says is true, I can tell you that it's a serious blow for cycling."

The International Cycling Union (search) did not begin using a urine test for EPO until 2001, though it was banned in 1990. For years, it had been impossible to detect the drug, which builds endurance by boosting the production of oxygen-rich red blood cells.

Jacques de Ceaurriz, the head of France's anti-doping laboratory, which developed the EPO urine test, told Europe-1 radio that at least 15 urine samples from the 1999 Tour had tested positive for EPO.

Separately, the lab said it could not confirm that the positive results were Armstrong's. It noted that the samples were anonymous, bearing only a six-digit number to identify the rider, and could not be matched with the name of any one cyclist.

However, L'Equipe said it was able to make the match.

On one side of a page Tuesday, it showed what it claimed were the results of EPO tests from anonymous riders used for lab research. On the other, it showed Armstrong's medical certificates, signed by doctors and riders after doping tests — and bearing the same identifying number printed on the results.

L'Equipe is owned by the Amaury Group (search), whose subsidiary, Amaury Sport Organization, organizes the Tour de France and other sporting events. The paper often questioned Armstrong's clean record and frequently took jabs at him — portraying him as too arrogant, too corporate and too good to be real.

"Never to such an extent, probably, has the departure of a champion been welcomed with such widespread relief," the paper griped the day after Armstrong won his seventh straight Tour win and retired from cycling.

Leblanc suggested that in the future, urine samples could be stashed away for future testing as detection methods improve — another possible weapon in the fight against doping.

"We're so tired of doping that all means are good as long as they are morally acceptable," he told L'Equipe.

foxnews.com

Looks like a severe case of sour grapes!

they've been accusing him for a long time... Not that it really matters now that he's retired.

But having watched his last few races he seems to have a good deal of luck going for him too. His fiercest competitors during a few of them have crashed out (hamilton broke his collarbone, beloki went down hard, etc.) but he's stayed up. And as I recall he hasn't gotten a flat, in addition to the fact that he has a great team (rivaled only by CSC) riding with him.

Lance is a true inspiration for anyone, ANYWHERE having to overcome a seemingly impossible degree of adversity to realize their dreams. To dis Lance would be like dissing the toothfairy! Nice to see positive comments about him here, even knowing his national origin. Positive sign no doubt. PDT_Armataz_01_34

People can't believe that honest hard work still pays off; it's very revealing of those making the accusations.

How dare Tour de France Director Jean-Marie Leblanc accuse Lance Armstrong of using the illegal performance enhancing drug erythropoietin in 1999, prior to that years Tour de France.

Serious questions need to be asked as to why Lance Armstrong's urine was maintained for so long, and tested so late. Erythropoietin which is commonly referred to as EPO, may have been in Lance Armstrong's urine sample, but that does not mean it came from Lance Armstrong, as knowing the French, as I do, and their envy of all things American, it is very likely the sample was tampered with by the French, possibly by the French intelligence service, the DGSE, which stands for the Directorate-General of External Safety.

The French are universally known as a pathetic people. They call themselves a world power, but they know in their hearts that their an insignificant speck of dust on the global scene. They created the European Union with the idea that France would be considered its major member, but when that illusion faded they voted against the European Union's Constitution.

It is now known that the French were actively spying on the United States and providing intelligence and weapons to Saddam Hussein's regime in the days leading up to the second Gulf War. When the DGSE was previously caught red handed stealing Texas Instruments technology in 1992, a former Director of the DGSE, Pierre Marion, was unapologetic about what happened. Marion said he viewed the mission of his former agency as the collection of intelligence against friend and foe alike, and considered technology and other corporate secrets to be fair game.

If a "friendly" nation will steal America's corporate secrets and provide weapons and intelligence used to kill Americans why wouldn't that same nation tamper with Lance Armstrong's urine sample? Lance Armstrong serves as an example of the power of America and the feebleness of France. Armstrong came to tiny France and dominated that countries national sport by winning the Tour de France 7 times in a row. He was mocked and attacked by the French media and some of the fans along the route, but he maintained his dignity and winning way. This is this nothing more than a transparent attack against America, an attach which will backfire on the Munchkins of France, when Americans choose not to watch future Tour de France races, just as we have rejected that ghastly substance the French try to export, which they have the arrogance to call wine.

www.theconservativevoice.com . . .

Lance Armstrong - France sucks!

Shouldn't his last tests be more relevant? I would think his performance of recent years should be more scrutinized. Seven years ago?????.....want some cheese to go with your w(h)ine.