French sports daily L’Equipe could be part of a much larger conspiracy to destroy the legacy of seven-time Tour de France winner Lance Armstrong, the cycling legend’s agent said on Thursday.
Bill Stapleton said apparent lapses in anti-doping protocol raised questions about integrity of the system.
He disputes the way Armstrong’s 1999 urine samples were handled and the manner in which information was leaked to L’Equipe, saying France’s Ministry of Sport, the failed Paris 2012 Olympic bid and the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) were involved.
”The system seriously failed and when the system fails, you have to go to the head,” Stapleton said.
”This is going to trickle all the way up. L’Equipe was a mouthpiece used by people up much higher. It goes to the Ministry of Sport, to the Olympic bid, it goes to Wada and it goes to [Wada president] Dick Pound.”
Armstrong, who retired after his seventh consecutive Tour de France victory in July, has been accused of using banned blood booster EPO (erythropoietin) by L’Equipe in an August 23 article which showed details of the drug tests.
L’Equipe reported with a front page headline ”The Armstrong Lie” that six of Armstrong’s urine samples from the 1999 race tested positive for EPO, a test perfected only after that inaugural Armstrong triumph.
Speaking in a conference call that included Armstrong, Stapleton said the only way that Armstrong’s stored urine samples from the 1999 Tour de France could have tested positive is if someone tampered with the specimens.
”We leave open the possibility that someone sabotaged those samples,” he said.
”Someone put EPO in them if the test is accurate.”
Armstrong said that the current testing procedures are flawed and Wada knows this and that is why they are trying to develop a more reliable one.
Stapleton and Armstrong also criticised Pound.
”Is Dick Pound a vindictive person who holds grudges, perhaps?” Armstrong said.
Armstrong admitted for the first time on Thursday that he gave L’Equipe the authority to view his confidential testing forms from the Tour de France, documents that eventually became the base for their story.
”We authorised the release for a particular purpose,” Stapleton said.
”They were supposed to look at the forms to see if there was a medical exemption. We assumed they would go and look at the forms and not leave with them.”
Asked why he permitted the newspaper access to the testing forms, Armstrong said, ”I have nothing to hide.”
Under standard procedures, French lab workers have no way of knowing which stored urine samples belong to which rider. Armstrong’s name didn’t surface until the L’Equipe reporter was able to match the confidential forms to a separate list of sample numbers.
”The only reason to get the forms and numbers was an attempt to match them,” said Armstrong lawyer Mark Levinstein. ”What kind of event is going on here?
”Either the lab was involved in this or someone told them to do it which is a violation of protocol.”
Earlier on Thursday, Pound told a news conference in Montreal that it was International Cycling Union (UCI) chief Hein Verbruggen who gave information about Armstrong to the French daily.
When asked if Verbruggen had given information to L’Equipe, Pound said: ”Yes. He at least has shown all six [doping test forms signed by Armstrong] to the journalist and he gave the journalist at least one copy.”
Since the fall-out from the allegations, Verbruggen has never publicly pointed the finger at the American.
The UCI later rejected the claims on Verbruggen.
Armstrong said there is bad blood between the two, but he is siding with Verbruggen.
”There have been other tussles between Hein and Pound. Whoever wins the Tour is going to get drawn into it,” Armstrong said. ”Hein does the best job he can do and I support him.”
A UCI spokesperson told Agence France Presse that it would refer to its statement of September 9.
”The UCI has no problem confirming what it has also said in writing to Mr Pound. The journalist in question [from L’Equipe] came to the UCI on a false pretext and with the approval of Armstrong. He left the UCI with a copy of just one document.”
The Montreal-based Pound did not immediately return phone calls to his home seeking comment. – AFP
