Two of Lance Armstrong’s teammates in the 1999 Tour de France admitted taking the banned performance-enhancing substance EPO in preparing for that race, the New York Times reported on Tuesday.
In a story posted on its website, the newspaper said Frankie Andreu, a retired captain of the US Postal Service team, and another rider who did not want his name disclosed, both admitted wrongdoing in interviews with the Times.
”Everybody’s afraid to talk because they don’t want to implicate themselves but there are guys out there who love the sport and who hate doping. They are the guys who have to speak up if the sport is going to survive,” Andreu said.
The admissions darken Armstrong’s first Tour de France triumph and come in the wake of Armstrong fighting off claims that an updated test of a 1999 sample applied by a French laboratory showed the United States cycling star was positive.
”There’s always going to be the guy who denies and denies that he’s ever used something,” Andreu said. ”Nobody really knows what that guy is really doing when he goes home and closes the door.”
Armstrong, who turns 35 next week, began a run of seven Tour triumphs in a row in 1999 before retiring last year. American Floyd Landis won last July’s Tour but tested positive and is fighting to clear his name.
Armstrong and Landis have denied taking any performance-enhancing substances. — AFP
