Usada Releases Damning Armstrong Evidence
The United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) has released its evidence against Lance Armstrong, the seven-time Tour de France champion, who announced this summer that he would not contest its latest round of doping sessions.
Armstrong presented that position as an unwillingness to fight rather than an admission of guilt, with his lawyers denouncing USADA’s case as a ‘hatchet job’.
But the organisation’s 1,000 pages of evidence, which it also submitted to the International Cycling Union (UCI) yesterday, includes ‘sworn testimony from 26 people, including 15 riders with knowledge of the US Postal Service Team and its participants’ doping activities’ and was described by USADA chief executive Travis Tygart as ‘conclusive and undeniable proof’ that Armstrong not only doped but was at the centre of a widespread conspiracy.
The report said: ‘It was not enough that his team-mates give maximum effort on the bike, he also required that they adhere to the doping programme outlined for them or be replaced.
‘He was not just a part of the doping culture on his team, he enforced and re-enforced it.’
USADA praised the riders who came forward to discuss their involvement, breaking what has long been seen as a culture of omerta in the sport. Tygart added: ‘Lance Armstrong was given the same opportunity to come forward and be part of the solution. He rejected it. Instead, he exercised his legal right not to contest the evidence and knowingly accepted the imposition of a ban from recognised competition for life and disqualification of his competitive results from 1998 forward.’
Armstrong Tweeted on Wednesday night: ‘What am I doing tonight? Hanging with my family, unaffected, and thinking about this’ accompanied by a link to an article celebrating 15 years of The Lance Armstrong Foundation’s work.
