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USADA Files Doping Charges Against Lance Armstrong, Others

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The U.S. Anti-Doping Agency has filed formal doping charges against Lance Armstrong, claiming the 7-time Tour de France champion used performance enhancing drugs as far back as 1998.

A three-person USADA review panel unanimously recommended filing formal charges after reviewing the evidence. In a letter sent on Thursday to Armstrong, former team director Johan Bruyneel, team doctors Pedro Celaya Lezama and Luis Garcia del Moral, team trainer Pepe Marti and doctor Michele Ferrari were formally charged, stating that they have “been part of a doping conspiracy involving team officials, employees, doctors and elite cyclists.”

Specifically, Armstrong is accused of “using, possessing and trafficking banned substances including the blood-booster EPO, blood transfusions and steroids.”

From here, the case will likely move to an arbitration panel where all evidence will be presented along with expert testimony and the defendants may challenge the decision. They have until July 9 to decide to challenge. The USADA has said it has at least 10 of Armstrong’s former teammates and associates that will testify against him, and that they have blood samples from 2009 and 2010 that are consistent with blood doping.

In a Yahoo Sports article, Robert Luskin, Armstrong’s attorney, calls the charges “wrong and baseless. It is the entirely predictable product of USADA’s toxic obsession with Lance Armstrong and a process in which truth is not a priority. There is not one shred of credible evidence to support USADA’s charges and an unbroken record of more than 500 clean tests over more than a decade and a half to refute it.”

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MaLóL
MaLóL
11 years ago

Hope is bastard finally goes to jail… now the funny part is gonna be thi; who’s gonna take now those tours?¿?¿?¿? ulrich??? pantani??? virenque???? beoqui??? all were clearly doped so… Will be awesome to have 7 tours with no winner. Way to go!!!!

MTB
MTB
11 years ago

He can’t go to jail, not a criminal investigation (that was dropped).
If found guilty, he could lose one tour title, while the others passed the statue of limitation.

Nick
Nick
11 years ago

Friggin witch hunt!!

If he doped, and it proved to be what won him his tdf’s, how come he came back as old as he did, got tested daily and still podium’d?

Marcassin
Marcassin
11 years ago

Actually he could loose two Tour title not just one, making him the equal of Hinault, Anquetil or Mercks.

satisFACTORYrider
satisFACTORYrider
11 years ago

Glad when this stupid circus leaves town

Whatever
Whatever
11 years ago

Um, Nick, much of the USADA case is based on alleged blood manipulation in the comeback period. Perhaps if he hadn’t come back and gotten on the podium, his legacy would have been safe. Greed can bite you in the butt. You should read the actual complaint.

And others have pointed out that during some years when he claimed to be the most tested athlete alive, that was simply just marketing drivel. One year, he wasn’t even the most tested Armstrong. That female pro with the same last name was tested once more.

MaLóL
MaLóL
11 years ago

-Marcassin forgot Indurain, greatest contemporary cyclist, who din’t won a 6th tour because of doped Riis.

-He could go to jail if proved to traffic with drugs, which it’s quite clear until now, just not proven well enough to be guilty in a jury… just yet.

rustydog
rustydog
11 years ago

why are comments not showing up?

Ralphbert
Ralphbert
11 years ago

Mr innocent tends to sue people who make comments he doesn’t like….

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