The Lance Armstrong Doping Investigation Heats Up

The Lance Armstrong doping investigation is heating up with a new round of accusations by Tyler Hamilton on 60 Minutes. Most of the Tyler Hamilton allegations against Lance Armstrong, Johan Bruyneel, and the United States Postal Professional Cycling team cannot be directly confirmed, except for the claim that Lance Armstrong tested positive for recombinant erythropoietin (r-EPO) during the 2001 Tour of Switzerland. It has been reported on Fox News Radio that an investigation is currently underway in Switzerland to either confirm or deny the Tyler Hamilton allegations of a positive rEPO test for Lance Armstrong. If a positive test for rEPO exists, the Tyler Hamilton assertion that Lance Armstrong paid the International Cycling Union $100,000 for a drug testing machine and an additional donation of $25,000 to the UCI slush fund to suppress the positive rEPO test may have some relevance. Currently Pat McQuaid and the UCI deny any such cover-up deal with Lance Armstrong.

One aspect of the Tyler Hamilton interview that seems concerning is his denial of doping during the Olympic games, where Hamilton won the Olympic time trial gold medal, when the Olympic testing laboratory found markers in his blood indicating a double cell population, common with blood transfusions. This is very ingenious because there exist documents written by WADA warning Tyler Hamilton of blood irregularities long before the Olympic positive test. Tyler Hamilton was allowed to keep his Olympic gold medal because the Olympic laboratory froze his confirmation sample by mistake rendering the blood useless for testing purposes. The fact that Tyler Hamilton kept the medal, instituted a campaign to deny his doping, and even at the present time, denies any doping during the Olympic games, renders his testimony very self serving and very questionable.

Marion Jones, non analytical positives, and USADA

USA Today writer Christine Brennan wrote an article that quoted an interesting e-mail reply from Travis T. Tygart.

The fear of testing positive serves as a strong deterrent for many athletes who might otherwise make the decision to defraud sport by doping. That being said, we know that some well-resourced, sophisticated dopers with the infrastructure in place can evade a positive test. Fortunately for clean athletes, authorities also have the ability to sanction athletes using dangerous performance enhancing drugs based on reliable evidence other than a positive test.

Christine Brennan says: "That's the way the U.S. Government finally caught Jones, and it might be the way it gets Armstrong, if he's indicted."

Clearly Travis T. Tygart is correct in suggesting that teammate testimony may lead to an non-analytical positive and a suspension if there is proof of the allegations. But Ms. Brennan's conclusion is certainly incorrect, a non-analytical positive did not catch Marion Jones. Advances in doping detection and some good luck caught Marion Jones.

1) Athletes testified to the fact that they saw Marion Jones using the "clear," a newly formulated, previously unknown, and unlisted designer steroid.
2) Anti-doping laboratories chemically typed and developed a test to detect the "clear" (GC/MS) after a track coach provided a sample of the previously unknown steroid.
3) Olympic laboratories and international laboratories had stored Marion Jones urine samples "on ice" and her career urine samples were available for re-testing for the "clear."
4) The anti-doping jackals were closing in.
5) Knowing that she was caught, Marion Jones confessed to using the "clear," surrendered her Olympic medals, and admitted that she lied under oath about never using performance enhancing drugs.

Lance Armstrong, sans a possible positive test for r-EPO during the 2001 Tour of Switzerland, has never tested positive for any performance enhancing drug even though a test for r-EPO was available, and even though Lance Armstrong was extensively tested for performance enhancing drugs from 1999-2005. Thus it is very unlikely that a unknown designer steroid magic bullet exists with Lance Armstrong, a "smoking gun" that could be identified with re-testing of his urine samples. However, Lance Armstrong does have an unusual case history that seems suggestive of possible performance enhancing drug use.

1) Teammates accuse Lance Armstrong of using r-EPO and other performance enhancing substances. (1999-2005)
2) A test for r-EPO existed in 2000 to present.
3) Tyler Hamilton claims that Lance Armstrong and USPS used r-EPO during the 1999 Tour de France.
4) In 2004 French WADA accredited laboratory LNDD (Chateny-Malabry) claims to have detected r-EPO in Lance Armstrong's 1999 Tour de France urine samples.
5) Emile Vrijman hired by the UCI to investigate the 2004 LNDD "scientific" re-testing of the 1999 Tour de France urine samples declares that the testing "constitutes nothing" and recommended that the UCI take "no action," because their was a lack of security, no clear chain of custody in regards to the urine samples tested, and other problems that invited sample tampering. Other problems emerged concerning the 1999 urine sample re-tests. All four of the prologue samples tested resulted in 100% isoforms of r-EPO. Christiane Ayotte called such results "surprising" and "improbable." Ayotte explains that r-EPO is a biological agent and is therefore prone to degrade over time even when stored at -40 Celsius. The 100% prologue isoforms imply that the r-EPO was in pristine condition, almost like it was added to the samples the day before! There were other problems, the aliquots were labelled with the dates when the samples were taken and possibly the athlete doping control form numbers. Mario Zorzoli the UCI medical expert provided L'Equipe reporter Damien Ressiot with all of the Lance Armstrong doping control numbers form the 1999 Tour de France. Consequently, it is logical to conclude that Ressiot and some LNDD miscreant put two and two together and knew which samples belonged to whom and engaged in sabotage. Interestingly, L'Equipe knew the results of the Lance Armstrong 1999 Tour de France tests before WADA or the UCI. The UCI requested no rider suspensions result from the alleged r-EPO "positive tests."
6) A controversy erupts over a cortisol (cortisone) topical cream Armstrong used for saddle sores during a Tour de France. There is some argument over whether Armstrong filed a valid medical therapeutic use exemption for cortisol.
7) France accused USPS Professional Cycling Team of using actovegin after a French television station recovered some USPS medical waste from a dumpster. Actovegin used with localised platelets at the sight of injury is supposed to speed recovery. However, actovegin may have no medical efficacy other than a placebo effect. Actovegin is currently a banned substance and it cannot be imported into the United States. After a two year investigation the French government decided that there was insufficient evidence to prove that Armstrong and USPS were engaged in doping practice.
8) During the Motorola period (pre-cancer) Armstrong is accused to testing above the testosterone 6:1 legal limit.
9) Betsy Andreu claims that Armstrong admitted to using e-EPO and other performance enhancing drugs during the Motorola period (pre-cancer)in a medical interview with Indiana University Medical Center doctors. Frankie Andreu claims to have heard the Armstrong admission. No medical records of such an admission exist. Frankie Andreu also claims that USPS used performance enhancing drugs.
10) Lance Armstrong had a business relationship with "Doctor Blood" Michele Ferrari.
11) Michele Ferrari was convicted of providing r-EPO and doctored blood products to athletes by an Italian court.
12) During a Tour de France an enraged Lance Armstrong chased down and threatened Filippo Simeoni after Simeoni accused Lance Armstrong and Michele Ferrari of having an improper relationship.
13) Greg LeMond accused Armstrong of making threats during a cell phone conversation that LeMond received at an airport. Kathy LeMond supposedly transcribed the conversation. LeMond claims Armstrong stated that he could provide a hundred witnesses who would claim that LeMond used r-EPO.
14) Floyd Landis claims that the USPS team used r-EPO. Landis claims that the USPS team would stop along a Tour de France course and receive midnight team blood transfusions at rest stops on the team bus.
15) In 2009 a AFLD chaperon showed up at the Astana team facility to gather out of competition hair, blood, and urine samples. There seemed to be some dispute over the credentials of the AFLD chaperon, so while Johan Bruyneel called Pierre Bordry for confirmation, Lance Armstrong left the presence of the chaperon to take a shower, which is a direct violation of WADA code and should be construed as a punishable violation. Many critics complained that Lance Armstrong was doing more than showering, like employing strategies to defeat detection.
16) Ed Coyle, a University of Texas physiologist concluded that several factors accounted for the tremendous improvement in Lance Armstrong's athletic performance post cancer, post Motorola, and post Cofidis. Improved pedal efficiency, performance increase per kilogram of weight loss and low lactic acid production. rEPO use would also account for about a 15% increase in performance if Lance Armstrong had not used r-EPO pre-cancer. Micheal Ashenden and other excercise physiologists assert that Lance Armstrong is not a unique cyclist, his physiological parameters are a wee bit above normal, but not exceptional. The post cancer weight loss has been questioned and discounted, so how do you account for such an exceptional increase in performance post cancer if Lance Armstrong was using r-EPO pre-cancer? An abnormal hatred of Cofidis?

And yet... there is more, probably so much more... and yet...there is nothing but smoke and mirrors. The anti-doping agencies did not suddenly discover a new BALCO designer steroid magic bullet with an unknown chemical signature, or an exogenous designer steroid that did not appear on the WADA prohibited list. Consequently, the non-analytical positive sanction that USADA and the Federal Government is planning on, without an admission by Lance Armstrong of engaging in past doping, is unlikely to happen ever. So you might agree with some of the critics who proclaim that this investigation is a colossal waste of tax payer dollars that could be spent more productively on anti-doping research to catch the next batch of the "clear."