Lance Likely Banned From Tour For Failed Dope Test Regulation!

By Mason Levinson

April 10 (Bloomberg) -- Record seven-time Tour de France winner Lance Armstrong said that he likely will be banned from returning to cycling’s premier race because of a drug-testing dispute with France’s anti-doping agency.

Armstrong, speaking in a video posted on his foundation’s Web site and Twitter, said that the French agency, known as AFLD, will probably ban him from the July race because of his actions before the March 17 drug test.

“There is a very high likelihood that they will prohibit me from riding in the tour,” Armstrong said in the video.

Blood, urine and hair samples taken from Armstrong that day, which Armstrong said was his 24th out-of-competition drug test since beginning a comeback this year, were negative for banned substances.

AFLD said Armstrong showered (which is against regulations for someone about to be tested, because it can taint or reduce the samples' chemical composition) while his team checked the credentials of the tester. Armstrong “didn’t respect the obligation to remain under observation of the person in charge of the doping control,” the agency said yesterday.

The group’s report was sent to the International Cycling Union, the sport’s global ruling body known by its French acronym UCI, which in turn gave the French organization authority to open a disciplinary enquiry, AFLD said....



He was tested by a doctor from the AFLP in the south of France, where the cyclist was training...


The AFLD’s report on the dispute was also leaked to the media, the BBC reported. UCI President Pat McQuaid said that proceedings between agencies and the UCI are expected to be kept confidential and that leaking of the report was “disturbing,” the BBC reported.


**here's more from arpuerta.com***


Armstrong was a medium-notable young rider, among many such others, when in 1996 he was struck with testicular cancer. He became at that time at least the third member of the US Cycling team to be afflicted by severe, life-threatening illnesses. The two other riders in this group, Greg Strock and Erich Keiter, ended up suing USA Cycling claiming that US coaches systematically injected them with performance-enhancing drugs that ultimately ruined their health. Among the coaches alleged to have injected the drugs was Chris Carmichael who is Lance Armstrong's long-time training coach.

After Armstrong survived cancer and raced again in 1998, he found himself unable to compete at a high level, and ultimately stopped racing altogether after abandoning a Paris-Nice race exhausted and looking very much as one would expect a man who has undergone cancer treatment to look. At that point, Armstrong went into seclusion with coach Chris Carmichael and emerged the next year to win the Tour de France. In the space of a few months, he had gone from collapsing by the side of the road to handily winning one of the top three cycling races in the world. The label that the press, fellow riders, and amazed fans put on this feat was unanimous: "It's a Miracle".

During the 1999 Tour de France, Armstrong tested positive for cortisone, a banned performance-enhancing drug. The test result, which carried with it an immediate disqualification from the race, was explained away by claiming that it was due to a topical cream legally prescribed to Armstrong. However, Emma O'Reilly, a key staff member of the US Postal team at the time and who was present when the team discussed what to do about the positive tests, has declared to various media outlets that the saving prescription was actually a doctored one fabricated with the express purpose of deceiving Tour officials. O'Reilly, who is a respected member of the cycling community, has nothing to gain with her allegations and has no ax to grind with Armstrong.

For many years, even as early as 1996, Armstrong's favorite doctor has been Michele Ferrari whom Bicycling magazine calls without hesitation "cycling's doctor most suspected of doping athletes". Dr. Ferrari is currently on trial in Europe for allegedly supplying riders with performance-enhancing drugs. Far from distancing himself from Dr. Ferrari, Armstrong has defended his association with him and gone as far as physically threatening riders who have decided to testify against Dr. Ferrari.

Starting in 2000, French police investigated Armstrong and the US Postal team for the illegal procurement and distribution of performance-enhancing drugs. The allegations were based on anonymous tips to police that even included syringes supposedly being used in the schema. The charges, of a criminal nature and carrying hefty prison sentences, were dropped for reasons of lack of evidence to prove guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.

Three-time winner of the Tour de France, American Greg Lemond, has labeled Armstrong's comeback from cancer as possibly "the greatest fraud" in the history of the race. To the idea that we have simple witnessed a miracle Lemond is even more blunt: "There are no miracles in cycling". Lemond suffered a shotgun accident in 1987 and had to make a difficult recovery of his own with a long path back to top competition. He clearly knows the limits of the human body at those performing heights and recognizes without reservations that his own return took a full two years and that he was "never the same".

In 2004, reporters David Walsh and Pierre Ballester published LA Confidential, a well-documented retrospective book on how Armstrong has allegedly used illegal drugs to further his career. The book includes extensive interviews with former US Postal team staff members and is but one piece away to be a final indictment on Armstrong: a positive test. Lance Armstrong sued the authors for libel in French courts, but his lawsuit was quickly dismissed.



**It's for the best, and actually called by many that he wouldn't be racing The Tour this year..but mostly because Contador is a faster, better rider with a much better chance at winning the race.**