Documentary - Cycling’s Greatest Fraud (Lance Armstrong)

Blood transfusions. Steroids. EPO. Injections. Deceptions. National Geographic Channel goes inside the science and scheming of Lance Armstrong’s legendary fall from grace.

Armstrong's rise and fall provides a lesson in how greed, hubris, and self-righteousness - not to mention self-deception - can destroy even the most talented of people. Armstrong was (and is) a rare genetic specimen whose body seems designed for endurance sports like cycling or running. Even as a teen, he was destined to be a great athlete.

But greatness was not enough - he had to be the best whoever rode a bike (although no one will ever surpass Eddie Merckx). So he began the most organized and successful doping program ever seen in professional sports (outside of bodybuilding). The best and most honest account of this I have seen so far is Tyler Hamilton's The Secret Race: Inside the Hidden World of the Tour de France (winner of the William Hill Sports Book of the Year).

Cycling’s Greatest Fraud

This one-hour special dissects the story of the science and scheming behind what’s been called “the most sophisticated and successful doping scheme in all of sports”.

Piece together eyewitness testimonies and delve into the illicit science to discover how the USADA says the doping plot began and then mushroomed in its complexity.

With new interviews from key members of his inner circle, see how Armstrong went to great lengths to protect his secret and his legacy, by using all the powers at his command to silence and attack critics, while assuring the public that his blood was as clean as his public image.

But, in the end, his empire collapsed, as the scheming unravelled and the science finally caught up with Armstrong.

Tyler Hamilton and "The Secret Race"

Tyler Hamilton's The Secret Race: Inside the Hidden World of the Tour de France: Doping, Cover-ups, and Winning at All Costs blew the doors off of Lance Armstrong's decade of denial, and it provides excellent insight into the life of a professional cyclist rising from the amateur ranks to a top tier Grand Tour contender.

I'm about halfway through this book, and I find it almost addictive - granted, I am a serious cycling fan and have always been a fan of Hamilton (more than Armstrong). The book is ostensibly about Hamilton and his career, but it's also about doping in cycling and about Armstrong's involvement in and orchestration of doping for U.S. Postal and Discovery teams.

As much as I am loving this book, I find the "aw shucks," humble beginnings, under-sized-athlete version of Hamilton's life a little off-putting. Hamilton is genetically gifted to be a great climber on the bike, granted not with all of Armstrong's gifts (drugs or no, Lance is a freak of nature), and he was a rising star in the U.S. before getting hired by U.S. Postal's continental team in 1996.

Still, I appreciate his honesty about the doping and the lengths he went to not to get caught - not to mention the incredible hunger to win that made doping an option that was acceptable.

More to the point, however, I am blown away by how tough the sport is at the top levels, how much willpower and strength it takes to dig deep and beyond all limits to finish a climb or a time trial.

Lance Armstrong’s Teammate Tells All: ‘The Secret Race’ By Tyler Hamilton

Sept 8, 2012

Updated  

Jan 15, 2013—Lance Armstrong has admitted to doping during an interview with Oprah Winfrey. Read Buzz Bissinger's mea culpa for defending Armstrong, and our speed read of Armstrong's longtime teammate Tyler Hamilton's book, containing many startling allegations against the former champion.

There were more drugs in cycling than in a game of Dr. Mario, Lance Armstrong’s longtime lieutenant Tyler Hamilton claims in a damning new account. We speed read The Secret Race for the biggest revelations.

1980s: Doping Before EPO

According to Andy Hampsten, a cyclist who raced in the 1980s and ’90s, riders were only using amphetamines and anabolics, and both had drawbacks. “Amphetamines made riders stupid … Anabolics made people bloated.” “EPO changed everything,” he said. It boosted a rider’s red-blood cells so they could carry more oxygen, leading to greater endurance.

Between 1980 and 1990, the average speed of a Tour de France rider was 37.5 kilometers per hour. From 1995 to 2005, it was 41.6kph.

1996: U.S. Postal Service Team

In 1994, Tyler Hamilton graduated from college and was racing as an amateur when he met Lance Armstrong, who had already won a world championship one-day race. The next year he turned pro, and in 1996 the U.S. Postal Service became the sponsor of his team. There was a new team doctor, Pedro Celaya, who explained what a hematocrit was: the percentage of blood that contains red-blood cells. If it exceeds 50 percent, you’d have to sit out 15 days, according to a new International Cycling Union (UCI) rule. There was no test for EPO yet.

According to the book, one day in the fall, when Armstrong was still recovering from cancer, his friend and teammate Frankie Andreu and his wife Betsy visited him in hospital. Two doctors entered the room and asked Armstrong if he’d ever used performance-enhancing drugs. Hamilton writes that, in front of the Andreuses, Armstrong said yes, matter-of-factly. “He’d used EPO, cortisone, testosterone, human-growth hormone, and steroids … This is a classic Lance moment, being cavalier about doping … He wants to minimize doping, show it’s no big deal, show that he’s bigger than any syringe or pill.” Betsy Andreu has talked about this encounter many times, including testifying under oath. Armstrong also denied it under oath and has attacked Andreu repeatedly.

1997: Tyler’s First Time

In 1997, just before a race, Hamilton says Celaya gave him his first “red egg” or “vitamin”—testosterone capsules. “I didn’t win the race, but I did pretty well.” One day he and others were at teammate/leader George Hincapie’s apartment in Girona, Spain, and they opened the refrigerator to find a foil packet with syringes and EPO. They called it “Edgar,” for Edgar Allan Poe. By the spring, because he wanted to make the Tour de France team, Hamilton took his first EPO shot. “Just a tiny amount, a clear liquid, a few drops.”

He took red eggs, Edgar, and stayed quiet. He rode the 1997 Tour and survived, while the French Festina team dominated the stages by using a synthetic blood called perfluorocarbons.

1998: Armstrong Joins U.S. Postal

Armstrong joined Hamilton’s team in 1998 after coming back from cancer. The two roomed together in training camp, and quickly became close friends. Hamilton was in Armstrong’s inner circle, and the two almost always trained together. He became Armstrong’s second in command, his lieutenant on the team.

Because he wasn’t as fit and ready as he wanted to be, Armstrong wisely and luckily sat out that year’s Tour. The race was marked by the Festina Affair, when a team car was stopped by French police, and 234 doses of EPO and other drugs were found in the trunk. Other teams, including U.S. Postal, flushed thousands of dollars’ worth of drugs down the toilets, says Hamilton.

PATRICK HERTZOG

“We all wanted to win. But Lanceneeded to win.”

1999 - Motoman

Armstrong’s most trusted adviser was Dr. Michele Ferrari, who was nicknamed Dr. Evil because he could figure out how to beat any doping test, writes Hamilton. Hamilton says Ferrari singlehandedly changed the sport. In the spring of 1999, Armstrong assembled his inner circle at his French villa in Nice to map out the plan for the Tour. When Hamilton arrived, he badly needed some EPO, and he asked Armstrong for some. “Lance pointed casually to the fridge. I opened it and there, on the door, next to a carton of milk, was a carton of EPO… I was surprised that Lance would be so cavalier.”

Because of the Festina Affair, team staffers were often searched and couldn’t carry EPO any more. During training, Hamilton says he got his from Celaya’s replacement, Dr. Luis Garcia del Moral, an ironic name if ever there was one. But what would happen during the Tour? Standing in the kitchen, Hamilton writes that Armstrong sketched out the plan: he would pay his gardener and handyman Phillipe, a.k.a. Motoman, to follow the Tour on his motocycle, carrying a thermos full of EPO for Armstrong, Hamilton, and a third teammate, Kevin Livingston. The riders would call him on a secret prepaid cellphone, and he would make a dropoff. They dropped used syringes in an empty soda can: the Radioactive Coke Can.

Armstrong won the “Tour de Fucking France,” a feat hailed as a miracle for the cancer survivor. President Bill Clinton phoned him. But he had tested positive for cortisone after the prologue stage. Hamilton writes that U.S. Postal made up a cover story and said Armstrong had a saddle sore, and backdated a prescription for a cortisone skin cream. UCI was not serious about testing or getting Armstrong, so the issue went away. When they had extra EPO, Armstrong suggested giving it to other teammates who were not in on the Motoman drop.

There were elaborate errands, chores, and routines to securing drugs and disposing of paraphernalia. Hamilton would soak the cardboard packaging of the EPO until the label was unreadable. He’d crush the empty vials by wrapping them in paper towels and pounding them with a hammer, then flush them down the toilet. He got to the point where he could estimate his hematocrit level by the color of his blood.

2000: Blood Bags

Hamilton and his wife moved to Nice at Armstrong’s invitation. The riders almost always trained together. One day during a training ride, Hamilton and Armstrong were cut off by a small car. Hamilton writes that Armstrong chased down the car, pulled the man out, and began pummeling him.

Just before the Tour, team director Johan Brunyeel flew Armstrong, Hamilton, and Livingston to Spain to have their blood drawn by del Moral and his assistant, Pepe Marti. “It would be like taking EPO, except better … You're watching a big clear plastic bag slowly fill up with your warm dark red blood. You never forget it." This blood transfusion was called BBs, or blood bags, and had to be done in the days leading up to the race since red-blood cells can only live for about 28 days, and giving blood is also very draining. Before the crucial stage 12 on Mont Ventoux, where Armstrong’s nemesis Marco Pantani would attack, the riders entered their hotel room to find their blood bags taped to a wall above their beds, ready for transfusion. Two days later, Armstrong blew by Pantani on the summit, then famously let him take the stage victory—he had already won the Tour, ended the battle, “Lance by TKO.” Pantani had used up all his energy chasing Armstrong, and dropped out of the race after stage 16.

2001: Microdosing

During training, Hamilton’s numbers improved significantly and his hematocrit was at 49.7. From then on, Armstrong saw Hamilton as a threat and that was the beginning of the end of their friendship.

To prepare for the 2001 Tour, Armstrong rode in the Tour of Switzerland. Ferrari advised Armstrong to sleep in an altitude tent and to drip EPO into his vein all night, so that it goes straight into the bloodstream and then goes away. “In this, as in other things, Lance was blessed: he had veins like water mains.” Hamilton says it took the authorities years and millions of dollars to develop a test for EPO, and “it took Ferrari five minutes to figure out how to evade it.” “The tests are easy to beat. We’re way, way ahead of the tests. They’ve got their doctors and we’ve got ours, and ours are better. Better paid, for sure.”

But Armstrong tested positive for EPO during that Tour of Switzerland. “I know because he told me,” Hamilton writes. “No worries, dude,” he says Armstrong told him. “We’re gonna have a meeting with them. It’s all taken care of.” According to sources within the FBI, a UCI official had intervened in the test and stopped it. Armstrong later made two donations totaling $125,000 to the UCI. Hamilton says he remembers Armstrong phoning the head of the UCI from the team bus soon after the incident and talking in a friendly, casual tone. The UCI has denied Hamilton's claim.

The team also began using testosterone patches instead of red eggs.

During that Tour, Hamilton largely did not use EPO, and his performance suffered. On a particularly dreadful day of riding, Armstrong grabbed Hamilton’s jersey by the neck and yelled, “What the f--k are you doing, Tyler?” That night Hamilton decided to leave U.S. Postal.

2002: More BBs

Hamilton joined CSC, a different team, and tried to stake his claim as Armstrong’s rival. He and Dr. Eufemiano Fuentes, whom Hamilton called “Ufe,” transfused multiple blood bags during the Tour—one per week, writes Hamilton. The scheduling of taking blood out and putting it back in was complicated. They used code for where to meet, and chose middle-of-the-road hotels.

But Armstrong won the Tour handily again. Hamilton doesn’t know what methods Armstrong used, but “there was always the sense that there was one more circle we weren’t seeing.” He said riders have always considered Armstrong two years ahead of the peloton when it came to doping.

2003: Broken Collarbone

Hamilton again raced against Armstrong in the 2003 Tour, and relied on BBs when he beat Armstrong for the first time ever. But then, near the end of the first stage, he was involved in a crash and he broke his collarbone. Against doctors’ advice, he continued on the Tour, which made him rather famous. But this also brought on guilt and depression.

2004: Siberia and Athens Olympics

Hamilton left CSC and joined Phonak, and Ufe began freezing BBs, a method he called Siberia. This meant Hamilton could give blood at any time and use more bags per race. But when he performed incredibly well during a practice climb on Mont Ventoux that included Armstrong, he was summoned to the UCI headquarters and said he was being put on a close watch.

During the Tour, Armstrong’s new teammate, Floyd Landis—in many ways Hamilton’s replacement as inner-circle friend—told Hamilton that Armstrong had called the UCI to rein him in. Hamilton confronted Armstrong during a stage, and Armstrong denied the claim. Armstrong won again, and would get his final Tour victory in 2005 for a record-shattering seven straight titles.

That summer, Hamilton won the gold medal in the time trial at the Athens Olympics. But 29 days after the Olympics, the UCI claimed that Hamilton had tested positive for transfusion of another person’s blood. BBs are full of a rider’s own blood, so Hamilton was perplexed and fought the charges, although it was possible that Ufe had mixed up the blood bags. A former teammate, Jonathan Vaughters, said, “The deadly mistake that Tyler, Floyd … and the rest of them made when they left Postal was to assume that they’d find other doctors who were as professional. But when they got out there, they found—whoops!—there weren’t any others.” Last month, the IOC stripped Hamilton of his gold medal. After a two year ban, Hamilton tried to make a comeback, but tested positive again in 2009. He retired.

2010: Grand Jury

Floyd Landis, who had won the Tour for Phonak in 2006, the year after Armstrong retired, was stripped of his victory after failing a drug test. In 2010 he blew the whistle and confessed to doping, and provided many details about Armstrong. Within days, Hamilton was called to testify in front of a grand jury investigating Armstrong. Hamilton also confessed, and made many of these accusations against Armstrong during the hearing.

2011: 60 Minutes

In March, 60 Minutes contacted Hamilton and asked for an interview; he agreed. He repeated many of his confessions and accusations against Armstrong. Thesegment aired in May. In June, the owner of Armstrong’s favorite restaurant in Aspen, his new home, called him to tell him that Hamilton was having dinner there; Armstrong rushed over. “I’m going to make your life a living … fucking … hell.”

2012: Legacy

On June 12, the United States Anti-Doping Agency charged Armstrong, Pedro Celaya, Johan Bruyneel, Luis del Moral, Pepe Marti, and Michele Ferrari with conducting a conspiracy to dope. In August, the USADA officially stripped Armstrong of his seven Tour wins after he announced he would not be fighting the charges.

Since his retirement from pro cycling, Hamilton has been a private trainer to riders. “I’m happy to see my sport cleaning itself up over the past few years … The winning time up Alpe d’Huez in the 2011 Tour was 41:21; back in 2001, a rider with that time would have finished 40th.”

“We all wanted to win. But Lance needed to win. He had to make 100 percent sure that he won, every time, and that made him do some things that went way over the line, in my opinion … I think people have the right to know the truth.”

~ Editor's note: An earlier version of this article incorrectly noted Tyler Hamilton's gold medal in the Olympics.

My Perspective on Lance Armstrong's Oprah Confession - It's Not About the Drugs . . . .

I have not seen the whole broadcast, but I have read enough (and know enough of the background) to have a well-informed opinion. Having been a serious cycling fan since Greg LeMond was winning his three Tours de France, I had little doubt about the use of performance enhancing drugs (PEDs) in cycling, especially after the Festina Affair in 1998.

Here is what I wrote in a status update earlier today on Facebook (edited and greatly expanded):

* * * * * * *

The legendary Eddy Merckx  was a 5-time Tour de France winner, 5-time Giro d'Italia winner, 1-time winner of the Vuelta a Espana, and he won the Giro and the Tour back-to-back three times. Merckx is widely considered by most cycling fans the greatest rider of all time. When Merckx was dominating the sport (the myth is that when other riders saw Merckx line up at the start of a race, they all knew they were racing for 2nd place), no one questioned his brilliance, his training, his will to win.

The only differences between now-disgraced Lance Armstrong (7-time winner of the Tour de France, no matter what the records say) and Merckx is that there was no EPO to use in the early 1970s, but amphetamines and anabolic steroids (testosterone and its variations) were legal . . . and crucially, there was no drug testing.

If you look at the way Merckx dominated the sport and made other great riders like look like weekend enthusiasts, the likelihood that he did not use PEDs is pretty slim. In his best year (1971), Merckx won almost every other race he rode. Merckx won the equivalent of a race a week for six years [The Independent, Friday 6th July, 2007.]

This list shows his wins as a percentage of races started - look at how often he won in 1970-1973:

• 1966: 21%
• 1967: 23% 
• 1968: 24% 
• 1969: 33%
• 1970: 37%
• 1971: 45%
• 1972: 39% 
• 1973: 37%
• 1974: 27%
• 1975: 25%

No mater how great Merckx was - and he was the best rider ever - these numbers are at best suspicious. The difference between him and Lance is that Lance dominated the Tour in an era when PEDs were not only illegal, but were the source of many scandals. In 1998, the year he returned to the Tour after his battle with testicular cancer (and the year before Lance's first victory), the Festina Affair ripped the drug scene in cycling wide open. Here is a brief summary from Wikipedia:

The Festina Affair refers to the events that surrounded several doping scandals, doping investigations and confessions by riders to doping that occurred during and after the 1998 Tour de France. The affair began when a large haul of doping products was found in a car of the Festina cycling team just before the start of the race. An investigation was followed by the opening of a separate case into the TVM team and the subsequent searching of many teams during the race. The investigation revealed systematic doping, and suspicion was raised that there may have been a widespread network of doping involving many teams of the Tour de France. Publicity on the case was constant and negative. Hotels were searched by police, and a spate of confessions were made by retired and current riders. Many team personnel were arrested or detained, and protests were made by riders in the race. Several teams withdrew from the race.

When Lance says he chose to use PEDs because that is what it took to be competitive and win races, this is the environment to which he is referring. To me, Lance is the greatest rider in a generation of riders who  were using PEDs. If drugs are simply another technology (and they are, which is why I believe they should be legal), like having better bikes, better wheels, better aero helmets, and better training techniques, then Lance had better drugs and applied their use more effectively.

For me, it's not about the drugs . . . .

What bothers me is that he lied about it, and not just lied, but actively sought to destroy anyone who might reveal his truth to the world. Men who willingly place themselves as role models have an obligation to at the very least be honest and demonstrate some integrity. In 1997, the year he returned to competitive cycling, he founded the Lance Armstrong Foundation, which later became the Livestrong Foundation. Lance wanted to be a role model - he spoke about his miraculous recovery, the great story of a hero overcoming imminent death to win one of the toughest sporting events on the planet, and then do it 6 more times.

However, the real issue to me is the way Lance bullied and intimidated other riders who spoke out about drugs, and especially those who spoke against him. In 1999, the first of Lance's 7 victories, Christophe Bassons (the only Festina rider from 1998 who rode clean) wrote some articles about the Tour and about doping, suggesting that the speeds were suspicious and that he believed little had changed. He paid a heavy price for those words, with Lance dealing the hardest blow:

The peloton began to turn against him, refusing to speak to him, and otherwise shunning him.[3]  

Stage 10 occurred on July 14 and was from Sestrieres to Alpe d'Huez. Bassons would later tell the story of this stage to media, including an October 2012 interview with the BBC. He said that nobody had been talking to him. The entire peloton planned to ride slow for the first 100 km without telling him. Bassons only heard about this because a mechanic from his team told him. Bassons decided he was "fed up" and decided to ride ahead of the others ("attacked from the start"). As they came to a flat spot, "all of the teams rode together to close me down". As the teams rode by him, they looked at him.[3]

" . . . and then Lance Armstrong reached me. He grabbed me by the shoulder, because he knew that everyone would be watching, and he knew that at that moment, he could show everyone that he was the boss. He stopped me, and he said what I was saying wasn't true, what I was saying was bad for cycling, that I mustn't say it, that I had no right to be a professional cyclist, that I should quit cycling, that I should quit the tour, and finished by saying [*beep*] you. . . . I was depressed for 6 months. I was crying all of the time. I was in a really bad way." - Bassons, on BBC Radio 5, 2012 10 15[3]

In 2011/2012, after investigations into past doping in cycling, especially the 2012 USADA report on Armstrong's US Postal Service team, the media began to re-tell Bassons story. In one interview for the BBC, Armstrong teammate Tyler Hamilton publicly apologized for being part of the peloton that shunned him, saying that he was "100% wrong" not to talk to him. Bassons said "that's life, it's nothing. I don't begrudge Hamilton. I understand."[3] 

Where I find little tolerance for Lance is not in his drug use (all but one of the 2nd and 3rd place finishers behind Lance in those Tour wins have been implicated in doping, as well). My intolerance lies in how he destroyed lives to maintain his lie, something he did not address last night. 

Greg LeMond and Frankie Andreu lost their livelihood at various points because of Lance (granted, LeMond had/has his own issues that made success off the bike more difficult). After LeMond expressed concern about Armstrong's relationship with Dr. Michele Ferrari, a known supplier of doping products and protocols to cyclists, Trek Bicycles threatened to drop the LeMond line of bikes unless LeMond apologized to Lance for saying he rode dirty - LeMond claims he suffered two years of depression for giving in to this demand.

The two parties first found themselves at odds in July 2001, after LeMond expressed public concern over the relationship between Italian doping doctor Michele Ferrari and Trek's star athlete, Lance Armstrong. "When I heard he was working with Michele Ferrari, I was devastated," LeMond was quoted as saying of Armstrong. "If Lance is clean, it is the greatest comeback in the history of sports. If he isn't, it would be the greatest fraud."[108][109] 

Trek's president John Burke pressured LeMond to apologize, claiming, "Greg's public comments hurt the LeMond brand and the Trek brand."[110][111] Burke allegedly justified his demand for an apology by advising that, "As a contractual partner, he [LeMond] could criticize doping only generally – not point his finger at specific athletes, particularly one that happens to be the company's main cash cow."[112]

Betsy and Frankie Andreu were close friends of Armstrong - and Frankie a teammate - who were present with Lance in the hospital when he was diagnosed with testicular cancer. During this revelation, the Andreus contend the overheard Lance admit to using EPO, steroids, and other banned substances.

From the New York Times:

The Andreus claim that they overheard two doctors in an Indianapolis hospital room in 1996 ask Armstrong if he had ever used performance-enhancing drugs. They said Armstrong, who was battling cancer then, rattled off: testosterone, EPO, growth hormone, cortisone, and steroids. 

But for years, Armstrong vehemently criticized them for their claims, saying they made up the story because they were jealous and vindictive, and that Betsy Andreu hated him. 

Yet when Armstrong told Winfrey in an interview that aired Thursday that he had doped throughout most of his cycling career, he failed to say that the Andreus’ hospital room story was true. 

“I’m not going to take that on,” he said when Winfrey asked about it. “I’m laying down on that one.”

He has not apologized or made any amends to them for his public assertions of their dishonesty and his use of the legal system to silence them. After the first segment of Lance's apology concluded, Betsy Andreu appeared on CNN with Anderson Cooper - she seemed clearly pained that Lance evaded the question and did not issue an apology:

She was not waiting for his doping confession. She was waiting for Armstrong to announce that she and her husband, Frankie, were not liars when they said Armstrong in 1996 had admitted to doping. 

But the acknowledgment that Betsy Andreu had long anticipated never came. 

“He owed it to me,” Betsy Andreu, on the verge of tears, said Thursday night on CNN’s Anderson Cooper 360. “You owed it to me, Lance, and you dropped the ball. After what you’ve done to me and what you’ve done to my family, and you couldn’t own up to it? Now we’re supposed to believe you? You had one chance at the truth, and this was it.”

If ever there were a place where "Man Up" is the appropriate response, this would be it. Armstrong owes a lot of apologies to a lot of people, which he did say was part of his effort to come clean. But for those people most wronged by Lance, it is probably far too little and far too late.

* * * * * * *

As Shawn Phillips has mentioned in his comments on Lance, we can never know what pressures he faced and what motivations lie beneath the surface in his life (including his calculated, detached, and minimal admission of doping on Oprah's couch, not with a sports reporter or cycling magazine). It's hard to judge someone when we acknowledge our own flaws and weaknesses - and while I find it difficult to accept that he should not be held, somehow, accountable for those lives he damaged, I also know that I live in a glass house. So this is where I place my stones on the ground and walk away.

* * * * * * *

Beyond the doping and the lost titles, and the money that will likely have to be returned, there is a man who has to live with himself for the next 40 or 50 years. There are deeper lessons in all of this, painful though they may be.

In the end, the races, the screaming fans, and the money mean nothing in life. What is important, however, are the relationships, the friendships, without which we are isolated and life loses its value and purpose. A man who throws friends and colleagues under the bus to protect his own lie, a lie he seems to have believed was his privilege, is a man who will die alone and lonely.

It seems Lance has not experienced this realization, yet, whereby he is willing to publicly apologize, and so sincerely, for destroying the lives of friends and teammates.

Lance Armstrong [sort of] Comes Clean - May Testify Against UCI and WADA Officials

Leaks from last night's Oprah interview with Lance Armstrong are all over the Internet (the interview is scheduled to air on Thursday). It seems Armstrong offered a limited admission to using to performance enhancing drugs (PEDs) during his career.

However, the bigger news is that he plans to testify against officials of the International Cycling Union, the governing body of professional cycling, about their involvement with doping in cycling, but he apparently will not testify against other riders.

Part of his motivation in testifying is that he is named in a whistle-blower lawsuit filed by Floyd Landis, a former teammate, who filed the case in 2010 against Armstrong and other principals of the Postal Service team (where he and Armstrong were teammates). Landis's lawsuit claims US Postal and Armstrong "defrauded the government because its riders used performance-enhancing drugs in violation of its sponsorship contract." Armstrong could be liable for millions of dollars in damages if the Justice Department decides to join the case (they are close to making a decision).

According to CBS News, Armstrong and possibly his longtime agent, Bill Stapleton, has offered to repay several millions of dollars of the more than $30 million the Postal Service spent sponsoring the team, as part of their cooperation as witnesses in the case, which would seem to be his way to avoid being named as a co-defendant in the lawsuit.

It seems Armstrong has met with the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) including its chief executive, Travis Tygart, to discuss what he needs to do to lessen the punishment against him so that he can compete in running and triathlon events from which he is banned under the ruling that stripped him of his racing titles.

Armstrong Admits Doping, and Says He Will Testify

By JULIET MACUR
Published: January 14, 2013

In an interview with Oprah Winfrey that is scheduled for broadcast on her network on Thursday, Lance Armstrong confessed that he used performance-enhancing drugs during his cycling career, according to two people briefed on the interview, which was recorded Monday in Austin, Tex.

It is unclear, though, how forthcoming Armstrong was about his doping program, which the United States Anti-Doping Agency has said was part of the most sophisticated, organized and professional doping scheme in the history of sports. Armstrong, when reached by e-mail Monday, said he could not discuss the interview.

Acknowledging his doping past has cleared the way for Armstrong to take the next step in trying to mitigate his lifetime ban from Olympic sports. He is planning to testify against several powerful people in the sport of cycling who knew about his doping and possibly facilitated it, said several people with knowledge of the situation.

Armstrong, 41, is planning to testify against officials from the International Cycling Union, the worldwide governing body of cycling, about their involvement with doping in cycling, but he will not testify against other riders, according to the people familiar with his plans.

He is also in discussions with the United States Department of Justice to possibly testify in a federal whistle-blower case. That case involves the cycling team sponsored by the United States Postal Service, and Armstrong would testify against several of the team’s owners, including the investment banker Thom Weisel, and other officials, one person close to the situation said. That person did not want his name published because the case is still open.

Floyd Landis, one of Armstrong’s former teammates, filed the whistle-blower case in 2010 against Armstrong and other principals of the Postal Service team on which he and Armstrong competed together for several years. Landis claimed the team defrauded the government because its riders used performance-enhancing drugs in violation of its sponsorship contract.

Now Armstrong and possibly his longtime agent, Bill Stapleton, are seeking to repay several millions of dollars of the more than $30 million the Postal Service spent sponsoring the team, as part of their cooperation as witnesses in the case, said the person with knowledge of the matter. (CBS News first reported Armstrong was in talks to return money to the Postal Service.) The Department of Justice is considering whether to join the case as a plaintiff and is close to making that decision, the person said.

Armstrong, who for more than a decade vehemently denied doping, would be willing to testify against the cycling union officials and his former team’s officials because he badly wants to compete in triathlons and running events again. Last fall, he was barred from many of those events because they are sanctioned by organizations that follow the World Anti-Doping Code, the rules under which he is serving his lifetime ban. Armstrong said that lifetime ban was unfair.

He met with United States Anti-Doping Agency officials, including Travis Tygart, the agency’s chief executive, last month to discuss what he needed to do to mitigate his ban. Several people with knowledge of the discussions said Tygart would be willing to reduce Armstrong’s punishment if Armstrong would testify against the people who helped him dope. That would possibly include Pat McQuaid, the president of the cycling union, and Hein Verbruggen, who was the cycling union’s president from 1991 to 2005, a time when doping in the sport was rampant. Verbruggen, who is close with the International Olympic Committee president, Jacques Rogge, is also the cycling union’s honorary president and an honorary member of the I.O.C.

David Howman, director general of the World Anti-Doping Agency, said in a telephone interview Monday that he would not believe that Armstrong would testify in other cases to help clean up the sport until it happens.

“This guy is an enigma and nobody really knows what he is going to do, no matter what he says,” Howman said. “I think he’s got his own demons to deal with, but nothing can be done about his lifetime ban when he hasn’t done anything to help us yet.”

Last fall the United States Anti-Doping Agency called Armstrong the kingpin of the doping program on his Tour de France winning teams when it made public evidence that he had doped and had encouraged his teammates to dope. During his interview with Winfrey, Armstrong rebutted the claim that he was a leader of the doping program, saying he just did what his teammates were doing, according to the two people who did not want their names published because they are not authorized to speak about the interview.

Before heading to the Winfrey interview in downtown Austin, Armstrong stopped at the headquarters of his cancer charity, Livestrong, and apologized to the staff. He told them he was sorry for letting everyone down and for putting so much stress on the organization because of his doping scandal.

He did not confess to using performance-enhancing drugs, but spoke for about 20 minutes in the organization’s boardroom, eliciting tears from some of the employees, said Rae Bazzarre, a spokeswoman for Livestrong.

“It was emotional and he choked up for a moment,” she said. “But we were all glad to see him.”

Armstrong had not been at the headquarters since Oct. 21, Bazzarre said, about two weeks before he resigned from Livestrong’s board of directors.


A version of this article appeared in print on January 15, 2013, on page B11 of the New York edition with the headline: Armstrong Will Implicate Officials.

Lance Armstrong - The Fall of an American Hero

It's now official - Lance Armstrong has been stripped of all of his cycling results from August 1st 1998 forward, including the record seven Tours de France that he had won. He is also permanently banned from cycling and any World Anti-Doping Agency sanctioned events, including his new hobby of triathlons. 

I have some thoughts about all of this that may counter to a lot of what is in the press and posted online. First, however, here is the case against Armstrong as revealed so far, with a lot of links so you can read the material yourself and form your own opinion - after that, I will explain my perspective.

“The UCI will not appeal to the court of Arbitration for Sport, and it will recognise USADA’s sanction against Lance Armstrong,” said UCI President Pat McQuaid, who spoke forcefully about the fight against doping. “The UCI will ban Lance Armstrong from cycling and the UCI will strip him of his seven Tour de France titles. Lance Armstrong has no place in cycling.”

McQuaid said that it will also recognised the USADA’s sanctions on the riders who testified, and thanked them to for that. He said that the UCI will set up a structure to examine the doping situation which had happened, and will take measures to safeguard the sport from experiencing the same sort of problems as before.

On August 23rd, Armstrong was handed a lifetime ban from sport by USADA plus had all of his results since August 1998 taken away. The sanction was handed down after he decided not to fight the doping charges made against him by the agency.

The reasoned decision included over one thousand pages of evidence, including sworn testimony from 26 individuals. Of that number, eleven were former team-mates of Armstrong, namely Frankie Andreu, Michael Barry, Tom Danielson, Tyler Hamilton, George Hincapie, Floyd Landis, Levi Leiphimer, Stephen Swart, Christian Vande Velde, Jonathan Vaughters and David Zabriskie.

Other details contained included what USADA described as ‘direct documentary evidence including financial payments, emails, scientific data and laboratory test results that further prove the use, possession and distribution of performance enhancing drugs by Lance Armstrong.’

Its CEO Travis Tygart said that the management of the US Postal Service team ‘ran the most sophisticated, professionalized and successful doping program that sport has ever seen.’

“The USPS Team doping conspiracy was professionally designed to groom and pressure athletes to use dangerous drugs, to evade detection, to ensure its secrecy and ultimately gain an unfair competitive advantage through superior doping practices,” he elaborated. “A program organized by individuals who thought they were above the rules and who still play a major and active role in sport today.”

Last week, many of Armstrong’s sponsors including Trek, Giro and Nike have announced that they were ending their relationship with him. He also resigned as chairman of the Livestrong foundation.

The director of the Tour de France, Christian Prudhomme, will not reassign the seven victories vacated by Armstrong - but he does expect Armstrong to repay the approximately three million he won in that race over the years.

Christian Prudhomme, the director of the Tour de France, has confirmed that he does not want Lance Armstrong’s seven Tour de France victories reassigned after the UCI ratified the USADA verdict to ban the Texan and disqualify him from results going back to August 1998.

Prudhomme also said that he expects Armstrong to pay back his estimated three million dollars he won in the race.

“There won’t be a winner. The formal decision will be taken by the UCI on Friday but for us, it’s very clear; we want to leave the palmares blank,” Prudhomme told the Reuters news agency after hearing Pat McQuaid speaking during his Geneva press conference.

You can read the full accounts of investigations at Sports Illustrated (this is the January, 2011 story - there is a newer version in the current issue), the New York Daily News (a good review of all the allegations that we made over the last decade and a half), and the New York Times. Finally, Cycling News, one of the premier sites for professional cycling, has posted a list off all the doping allegations against Armstrong and his teams that they have reported over the years.

Since the USADA decision was released, more and more stories have been surfacing from people who likely felt unable to speak out in the past due to the threats of retaliation (including lawsuits) for which Armstrong was known. One recent story uncovered by CBS News reports that Armstrong bribed a rider from another team to ensure that he (Armstrong) would a $1 million prize for a three race series. He won, and paid the rider as agreed. Another story contends that Armstrong was warned prior to all doping controls, which made it easy for him to use masking agents or other means of appearing clean.

There is also evidence that Armstrong and Nike, his biggest sponsor, had paid $500,000 to former UCI president Hein Verbruggen to cover up a positive drug test. Both Armstrong and Nike have denied that there was a positive test or a payment to Verbruggen.

Those who know Armstrong believe he will never admit to doping, as have so many of his former teammates. As Josh Levin points out in Slate, in refusing to fight the charges, and by extension giving up his seven Tour de France titles, "he’s keeping what he prizes most: his righteous indignation."

* * * * * * *

This is from Armstrong in one of his Nike commercials:

This is my body, and I can do whatever I want to it. I can push it. Study it. Tweak it. Listen to it. Everybody wants to know what I'm on. What am I on? I'm on my bike busting my ass six hours a day. What are you on?

* * * * * * *

This quote offers the key, in my opinion, to understanding who Armstrong is and why he did the things he has done. It reflects both his incredible desire to win, by manipulating his body in any way he can, and the fact that he seriously worked his ass off to be the best cyclist in a peloton filled with other cyclists who were using banned substances as well.

I have no problem with Armstrong having used performance enhancing drugs - every other top rider in that era was also using chemical assistance, and as far as I am concerned, all of it should be legal and monitored by doctors to ensure the safety of the riders (or other athletes).

If you have done a 100 mile ride (like the El Tour de Tucson, which is 109 miles for the top riders), you know how grueling that can be and how hard on the body it is, even if you are in shape and adequately trained. Now imagine doing that for 19 out 21 days, including time trials and some of the steepest mountain climbs in the world. You might be tempted to use drugs, too, to get through those three weeks, especially if you wanted to be competitive in cycling's most prestigious event.

Here is where I have a problem, as revealed in the testimony of several former Armstrong teammates:

Christian Vande Velde testified to being pressured to stick to the program given to him by Dr. Michele Ferrari in 2001, one that "involved regular use of EPO and testosterone", he stated.

But his fears of needles and of being caught meant he was reluctant to follow the program. He was not selected for the 2002 Tour de France and was told by Armstrong, "if I wanted to continue to ride for the Postal Service team I would have to use what Dr. Ferrari had been telling me to use and would have to follow Dr. Ferrari's program to the letter.

"Johan Bruyneel confirmed this a few days later ... and said he expected to see improvement."

Vande Velde left the team in 2003 for the Liberty Seguros team, which he stated "had an organised doping program as well". After moving to CSC in 2005, and in the absence of "the pressure of an organised doping program, I decided I would only continue in the sport if I could ride clean." He stated he stopped doping in April, 2006.

Zabriskie describes coming into the sport at the time of the Festina affair in 1998, and testified, "I knew I did not want to use drugs". He was reassured by current USA Cycling president Steve Johnson (then with a performance lab), who said the sport was cleaning up.

By 2000, he caught the attention of Bruyneel with a win in the U23 GP des Nations. He was hired on at $40,000, but refused to participate in "recovery injections". In 2001, he was begging to keep his job, accepting a drop in salary to $15,000 just to stay. In 2002, he began using the injections, because "I came to believe it was just vitamins".

Although he joked about EPO on the team bus earlier, Zabriskie testified that he was reluctant to succumb to its use until finally, when his teammate Barry decided to give in, Zabriskie did as well in 2003.

After leaving US Postal in 2004, Zabriskie moved to CSC, during which time he used doping products growth hormone and testosterone several times, but then in June, 2006 he stated he quit doping for good,

Danielson testified to using EPO and blood transfusions on the Discovery Channel team (after taking a pay cut from $200,000 as a neo-pro with Fassa Bortolo to $125k to join Armstrong's team) in 2005, only beginning to get scared of doping in 2007 when the program shifted to blood doping.

"I began to worry that my blood would be mistaken for someone else's," Danielson testified. "The more I thought about it, the more worried I became.

"I found the whole process to be almost emotionally paralyzing," he said, admitting that he got so paranoid that he began to have panic attacks and was given a sedative on the last night of the 2007 Vuelta a España.

"I continued to experience anxiety attacks and have trouble finishing well in races. As a result, I stopped doping in 2007. He then left to join Vaughters' team "where I knew I would be more comfortable competing clean."

Vande Velde, Zabriske, and other rides have described an atmosphere where they were pressured and coerced to use drugs and banned methods (blood transfusions) - and Armstrong was instrumental in leveling that pressure on his teammates.

Again, I have no problem with Armstrong choosing to do drugs, as many other riders have done (including Levi Leipheimer and George Hincapie), but when he and Bruyneel pressure and coerce other riders to do the same, then I have a real problem.

The decision to cheat, and even more the decision to risk one's health with performance enhancing drugs, has to be a personal choice and a freely made decision. When you cut a rider's salary from $40K a year to $15K because that rider (Zabriske) does not want to use the drugs, that is wrong on many levels.

And then there is the ferocity with which Armstrong went after anyone who dared to expose his drug use and tactics. He was infamous for suing anyone who spoke out, or intimidating, threatening, and even (in the case of Tyler Hamilton) physically intimidating (assaulted?) those people.

From the New York Daily News:

Doping might sometimes be a victimless crime, but not in the case of Lance Armstrong, whose drug abuse and illicit blood transfusions created a phony empire of wealth, adulation and power that had to be protected at all costs.

The Armstrong myth was so lucrative that suppressing the truth came to require an endless behind-the-scenes campaign to bully and intimidate people into silence. Some of it bordered on gangsterism. Some of it was dressed up in the respectable wardrobe of elite law firms. But mostly it was just hot air - a fact that by 2010 had become clear enough to Floyd Landis that he stepped up and burst the bubble, blowing the whistle on the whole big fraud.

Armstrong is undoubtedly the most talented and exceptional cyclist of his generation - yes, he was doped, but he was doped in a peloton of doped cyclists. He was just better at it than all the others. 

It's too bad he resorted to doping and intimidation to make himself the best. He was naturally gifted enough to compete even with athletes using drugs, he just wanted a short-cut to the top. Rather than become more innovative in his training, he sought the chemical cocktail to the front of the peloton.

The greatest loss in all this, however, is for the cancer patients - current and in the future - who no longer have a role model to look up to for inspiration. Further, there is no way this will not impact the ability of the Livestrong Foundation to raise money for cancer research. Armstrong has helped raise more than $500 million over the years since he founded Livestrong, and for this alone he should be an American hero - no single person can claim anything near that in helping to cure a disease. But even this achievement will be tarnished by Armstrong's association with cheating.

He may have cheated death in surviving cancer, but he could cheat pro cycling without eventually falling victim to his own hubris and ego.

I am Convinced that Lance Armstrong Is Guilty - And He Should Keep All of His Titles

About the only story on ESPN radio yesterday was the decision by Lance Armstrong late Thursday night to give up his fight against the US Anti-Doping Agency and the charges that he engaged in multiple anti-doping rule violations, participated in a sophisticated doping scheme and conspiracy, as well as trafficking, administration, and/or attempted administration of a prohibited substance or method - which included, at various times, the use of testosterone, cortisone, HgH, EPO (and other next generation hemacrit boosters), and blood transfusions.

Armstrong's statement did not proclaim his innocence so much as it tried to discredit the investigation, which he called an "unconstitutional witch hunt." It was clear, however, that once he lost the appeal to have the investigation thrown out, he had no choice but to accept the sanctions USADA was ready to impose.

If he had challenged their verdict in arbitration, the USADA would have marched out 10 former teammates (several of whom, like George Hincapie, likely would be hostile witnesses for the USADA) who were involved directly or indirectly in doping with Armstrong and his teams, other witnesses (including former team mechanics, etc.), evidence that the UCI helped to conceal a positive test for EPO at the 2001 Tour of Switzerland (and here), evidence of doping during his 2009 and 2010 comeback attempts, and a pile of additional evidence that has never been made public.

But let's be clear: This is not a witch hunt dreamed up by the USADA.

Let's remember how this started - following a series of allegations by disgraced rider Floyd Landis, a former Armstrong teammate (he made allegations so detailed and unique that the UCI's own biological passport division is using the information to strengthen its doping detection), the United States Food and Drug Administration launched a fraud investigation of US Postal team officials and doctors.

After a two-year investigation, United States Attorney Andre Birotte Jr. stated his office "is closing an investigation into allegations of federal criminal conduct by members and associates of a professional bicycle racing team owned in part by Lance Armstrong." NPR alleged at the time that sources in the FBI, FDA, and US Postal Service were ‘shocked, surprised, and angered’ and that federal authorities only had 30 minutes notice before the United States Attorney's Office released a press release to the media on Friday afternoon.

According the NPR, sources indicated that charges were close to being brought against a number of individuals, which included fraud, witness tampering, mail fraud, and drug distribution. One source, NPR says, said there were ‘no weaknesses in the case’.

[Emphasis added.]

Following the inexplicable decision by Birotte to drop the case, USADA announced that it is "looking forward to obtaining the information" that was gathered through the grand jury investigation.

CEO of USADA, Travis Tygart indicated that today's decision by the US Attorney may help his agency pursue Armstrong on doping violations.

"Unlike the U.S. Attorney, USADA’s job is to protect clean sport rather than enforce specific criminal laws," read the statement from Tygart. "Our investigation into doping in the sport of cycling is continuing and we look forward to obtaining the information developed during the federal investigation."

That information includes the statements of several of Armstrong's former teammates and staff members, including Tyler Hamilton, who later appeared on the television news show "60 Minutes" with details about the doping at US Postal including an eye witness account of Armstrong using EPO.

There are dozens and dozens of other links to relevant stories around this case, and Cycling News is a good place to find most of them. Sports Illustrated also did their investigation in 2011 and published the results.

For all the reasons outlined above - and the fact that beating the doping tests is far too easy, to the point that 500 or more passed tests simply means the testing (as always) lags behind the most sophisticated doping strategies (in fact, it is probable that Bruyneel and Armstrong consulted with top doping lab techs to learn how to beat the tests) - I am convinced Lance Armstrong was doping throughout his career.

More importantly, I am also convinced that every other rider who finished in the top 5 in any of those seven tours was also doping. So we are going to take away Armstrong's titles to give them to other riders who doped? This is the true farce in all of the noise around this decision.

[As an aside, this is where Armstrong's defense becomes silly. We are supposed to believe that he was, seven years in a row, the best rider on the planet - that he was the only clean rider but he could beat a peloton of riders who were all doping? Not likely.] 

From USA Today, here is a list of the riders who stand to now become Tour Winners, including Jan Ulrich, who is currently serving a two-year suspension for doping.

1999 - Alex Zulle
Bio: Zulle admitted to using the performance enhancer Erythropoietin (EPO) while competing with Team Festina.

2000 - Jan Ullrich
Bio: Ullrich had all of his results after May 2005 voided and was suspended for two years for doping in February.

2001 - Ullrich

2002 - Joseba Beloki
Bio: Beloki was held out of the 2006 Tour when Spanish police suspected him of doping. He was later cleared. But still associated so the list continues.

2003 - Ullrich (comment: He almost won a lot of these, didn't he?)

2004 - Andreas Klöden
Bio: The German National Anti Doping Agency is mulling the possibility of investigating Kloden, who was accused of an illegal blood transfusion during the 2006 Tour.

2005 - Ivan Basso
Bio: Basso admitted to blood doping in 2007 and served a two-year suspension.

If this is how things end up, Jan Ulrich will join a very elite group of riders of four Tour wins - and he is banned for doping, to which he has admitted.

Either Armstrong should retain his titles, or ALL results from the 1990s-2009 should be voided.

People like Lance Armstrong have been forced into an untenable position by the doping rules. We want to see riders complete insanely tough 3 week races (the three Grand Tours) with incredibly high average speeds, but we want to see them do it without any chemical assistance. It's simply not possible.

I've advocated for legalized PEDs in sports for years, and this exactly why. Athletes are expected to win, and to do so by being bigger, faster, stronger, or with greater endurance than previous athletes, but they are also expected to not use drugs that can help them do so more effectively, or to recover more quickly.

With financial pressures, performance pressures, and who knows how many other sources of pressure, the athletes find ways (or are told they need to participate in programs) to boost their performance and win races - all the while being forced to proclaim that they win based solely on talent and training. It has to suck to be in that position.

The reality is much different. With all things being equal, the top riders are (or have been doping) and that levels the field - although some riders may dope better or more effectively than others (which is true of training and nutrition as well - they are all technologies) - so Armstrong was, without question, the best rider of his generation, doping or not. As the list of 2nd place finishers shows, Armstrong was competing in a peloton where every one of his rivals was also doping.

The best athlete and most effectively doped rider won - and he should get to keep his titles.

And finally, we need to end the double standard. We should either allow riders to use PEDs without sanction, or we should be willing accept that stages will last 20 minutes longer, average speeds on climbs will be lower, sprinters will be just a bit slower, and the race will not be as exciting.

The same thing is true in other sports - maybe if NFL players had a legitimate testing program that sought to catch those using drugs rather than simply being for show (seriously, the NFL policy is so easy to beat that every player who wants to do so can use testosterone injections to speed healing between games) the players would be 20-50 lbs lighter, a few steps slower, and there would be far fewer concussions.

We need to get real about these issues, for our athletes and for their sports.