Wednesday, August 24, 2005
D'oh
By ANGELA DOLAND
Associated Press Writer
PARIS
PARIS
The director of the Tour de France said it was a "proven scientific fact" that Lance Armstrong 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 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. The French sports daily 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 specifically, and the French press in general, have been after Armstrong for years. Whether the allegations are true or not, I don't know... but coming from L'Equipe, people are not going to give it as much credibility. On the one hand, they worship him, respect him, etc... but they're always trying to find a good scandal to bring him down. These allegations DO seem to have more bite than what they've been putting out for the past six years or so (they once suggested that he hadn't really had cancer or something equally ridiculous), I'm going to wait for a more objective source.
That, and I just don't want to think of my Lanceypoo taking EPO or something like that. I'll admit I'm a little biased. -
The Smacca
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