Lance Armstrong during his interview with Oprah Winfrey to be broadcast this week
Media reports in the United States suggest ex Tour de France winner Lance Armstrong will attempt to have his lifetime ban reduced to allow him compete again by providing evidence on people who allegedly facilitated drug taking in the sport.
The influential New York Times newspaper said the Texan planned to supply information he believed would implicate people who held official positions in different parts of the sport during his career of drug taking, but he would not give information about any riders.
It has been alleged by a number of riders, including Armstrong’s former team mates Floyd Landis and Tyler Hamilton, that Armstrong told them the UCI assisted in covering up a positive test for EPO at the Tour de Suisse in 2001.
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Armstrong gave the UCI donations, though the UCI has said this money could not be connected to any drug test cover up. It has denied there was ever a positive test meaning there was never a cover up.
There have also been other reports that people he worked with down the years helped organise drug taking and that people involved in the testing process had conversations with him about how testing worked.
The US media reports suggesting Armstrong may testify against others surfaced in the media frenzy after he was interviewed by Oprah Winfrey for a TV interview to be broadcast in two sessions later this week.
The UCI responded to the reports by issuing the following statement:
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“The UCI will not be making any further comments on matters concerning Lance Armstrong until it has had the opportunity to view his much publicised interview with Oprah Winfrey.”
“The UCI notes the media speculation surrounding the interview and reports that he has finally come clean and admitted doping during his cycling career.”
“If these reports are true, we would strongly urge Lance Armstrong to testify to the Independent Commission established to investigate the allegations made against the UCI in the recent USADA reasoned decision on Lance Armstrong and the United States Postal Service (USPS) team.”
In other news related to the workings of the Independent Commission, the Word Anti Doping Agency and United States Anti Doping Agency both said yesterday they would not be participating in the commission process.
Concerns have been raised that the process focuses too closely on Armstrong and that its terms of reference need to be wider to address the problem of drugs in the sport generally.
Both WADA and USADA are also critical of the UCI’s unwillingness or inability to offer limited amnesties to riders and former riders who took drugs. They believe amnesties would enable riders come forward, confess and supply information; the absence of which would limit the commission’s works to the extent of handcuffing its investigations.
They have also expressed concern that the commission’s terms of reference were set down without either agency being consulted and they also feel the deadline for the commission to report by June is rushed.
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