USADA releases details of Lance Armstrong ban

[Russ Smith]

All the documents are online now on the USADA website. Too much to read but some pretty compelling evidence from the summaries I've seen.

Lots of testimony from ex teammates, testimony from a doctor who says Lance's blood profile between 2001 and 2003 is consistent with long term doping and the chances it's natural is infinitesimal.

They have wire and bank transfer information that shows Lance paid over 1 million dollars to Italian doctor Michele Ferrari over the course of about 5 years. Some of that time after Lance swore under oath he'd stopped working with Ferrari(he did so in a deposition for a case against an insurance company). Ferrari was the leading doping doctor at the time.

they have email exchanges that include "key words" that were defined to them by several ex teammates(like how they called a steroid "the clear" in the Barry Bonds case). Multiple teammates independently told USADA the names they used for certain drugs and the emails repeatedly reference those drugs in connection with Armstrong.

I haven't read it but I read one summary that says Lance officially notified USADA he wouldn't cooperate after being notified that part of the terms of his cooperation would be him signing off on giving USADA permission to retest years worth of old blood samples. Under doping laws you can't test old samples without the permission of the athlete, Lance refused and then announced he wouldn't cooperate. The famous case in France when they tested old samples and several of Lance's were positive, he DID give them permission because at the time it wasn't publicly known they had a test that could detect EPO in old samples.

Probably the biggest issue in there is the disclosure that Floyd Landis has filed a federal whistle blower lawsuit against Armstrong over using government backed team funds to run a doping ring which violates Federal Law. In theory the government could pursue that both to get the money back, and to pursue criminal charges against Armstrong. Landis stands to get a percentage of money they get as the one who turned it in so of course Lance says that's why he's lying.

If you read the story on an online paper read the comments below, it is amazing how many people are still defending him. Witch hunt, persecution, everyone was cheating why shouldn't he etc.

Lance released a statement calling it a tax funded witch hunt.

At this point I actually wonder if Lance came clean now what the fallout would be? A few years ago I think people would be mad, but it would blow over. Now after all the years of denial, I think coming clean would be way too late.

 

[Mulli]

Wow, what a collosal waste of money. Not quite Roger Clemens prosecution collosal, but maybe.

 

[Brian in Mesa]

He is a tool and a cheater - in his personal life and in his sport. His foundation is questionable too as far as how money raised is actually used. Not surprising at all.

Sent from my Samsung Galaxy S2.

 

[Russ Smith]

Wow, what a collosal waste of money. Not quite Roger Clemens prosecution collosal, but maybe.

Most of it from what I saw was just compiling evidence from other sources. I have no idea how much they spent but apparently they could seek to recover millions of dollars from LA(he's extremely wealthy now) because part of the whole thing is that Lance was using a federally funded team, the US Postal Service team, as part of this. That's why they are framing this as a doping ring so they can effectively go after him for that money as part of a conspiracy.

Does the amount they could get back = what they spent I have no idea.

I get the point that it's a lot of money but I guess that doesn't really bother me. The government wastes so much money anyways.

There is a very clear financial reason why LA doesn't want this to come out he will literally risk bankruptcy if it does because he's got so many people lining up to sue him for libel, slander etc. He's intentionally destroyed the careers of multiple people to conceal this and they are all going to seek damages if he finally admits the truth.

I guess ultimately I see bringing up the cost as an excuse, leave the guy alone it costs too much. If they are right, and if you look it sure as hell seems like they have him red handed, the guy needs to be held accountable for it.

 

[Russ Smith]

He is a tool and a cheater - in his personal life and in his sport. His foundation is questionable too as far as how money raised is actually used. Not surprising at all.

Sent from my Samsung Galaxy S2.

yeah some of the personal testimony stuff is alarming. Threatening young riders on the team that they had to step up their doping or risk losing their spot on the team! The reason is the way cycling works at that level the whole team works together to boost the star rider and as the star, Lance insisted the other riders dope.

Hincapie openly talked about it being essentially ordered to do stuff, they all felt if they didn't, they'd be off the team and Lance would destroy their career by badmouthing them to other teams.

 

[Mulli]

Most of it from what I saw was just compiling evidence from other sources. I have no idea how much they spent but apparently they could seek to recover millions of dollars from LA(he's extremely wealthy now) because part of the whole thing is that Lance was using a federally funded team, the US Postal Service team, as part of this. That's why they are framing this as a doping ring so they can effectively go after him for that money as part of a conspiracy.

Does the amount they could get back = what they spent I have no idea.

I get the point that it's a lot of money but I guess that doesn't really bother me. The government wastes so much money anyways.

There is a very clear financial reason why LA doesn't want this to come out he will literally risk bankruptcy if it does because he's got so many people lining up to sue him for libel, slander etc. He's intentionally destroyed the careers of multiple people to conceal this and they are all going to seek damages if he finally admits the truth.

I guess ultimately I see bringing up the cost as an excuse, leave the guy alone it costs too much. If they are right, and if you look it sure as hell seems like they have him red handed, the guy needs to be held accountable for it.

Yikes! Thanks Russ.

 

[Russ Smith]

Lance steps down as Chairman of Livestrong. NIKE drops Lance citing seemingly insurmountable evidence of doping.

Now all he has to do is FINALLY admit it and start dealing with the consequences so he can then try and move on.

 

[Lefty]

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[Russ Smith]

International Cycling Union agrees with USADA and strips Lance of 7 TDF medals. Spokesman says there is no place in cycling for Lance Armstrong and he needs to go away from cycling and be forgotten.

I'm at the point now I'm not sure he has anything to gain by coming clean, it's too late? I guess it's always better to tell the truth but he's been lying for so long I don't expect any sympathy if he does come clean.

 

[conraddobler]

International Cycling Union agrees with USADA and strips Lance of 7 TDF medals. Spokesman says there is no place in cycling for Lance Armstrong and he needs to go away from cycling and be forgotten.

I'm at the point now I'm not sure he has anything to gain by coming clean, it's too late? I guess it's always better to tell the truth but he's been lying for so long I don't expect any sympathy if he does come clean.

Oh how the mighty fall.

This is really an epic tale in my opinion of winning over sportsmansship. It's almost like sportsmanship is dead and it's a win at all costs world. I don't think though that's ever been a real good idea and it's not now any more than in the past a great way to go through life.

Hopefully he'll get what he deserves and serve as an example of why win at all costs is a crappy way to go through life.

 

[Russ Smith]

Oh how the mighty fall.

This is really an epic tale in my opinion of winning over sportsmansship. It's almost like sportsmanship is dead and it's a win at all costs world. I don't think though that's ever been a real good idea and it's not now any more than in the past a great way to go through life.

Hopefully he'll get what he deserves and serve as an example of why win at all costs is a crappy way to go through life.

The real problem I always had with Lance was that he didn't just cheat, he required teammates to cheat and if anybody dared to suggest cheating was wrong, Lance dropped the legal bomb on them and went after them.

I know it was probably a waste of money as Mulli said before but I'm still very glad USADA went after him. I think there are a lot of former employees and teammates who can regain some of their "credibility" now because of this.

 

[Mulli]

The real problem I always had with Lance was that he didn't just cheat, he required teammates to cheat and if anybody dared to suggest cheating was wrong, Lance dropped the legal bomb on them and went after them.

I know it was probably a waste of money as Mulli said before but I'm still very glad USADA went after him. I think there are a lot of former employees and teammates who can regain some of their "credibility" now because of this.

Ya, I agree it is probably good. So can we say that the cheating lead to the cancer which led to the millions and billions of dollars in donations?

 

[Russ Smith]

Ya, I agree it is probably good. So can we say that the cheating lead to the cancer which led to the millions and billions of dollars in donations?

Even that is highly misleading if you actually research what Livestrong does. They absolutely have done a lot of good but it's really been misreported how much they get for cancer research. Between 98 and 2005 they collected 20 million for cancer research, total, not annually. They were far more concerned with connecting cancer patients wtih doctors and treatments and education etc. The idea that Lance promotes about raising hundreds of millions for cancer research is false, in fact they haven't even accepted applications for studies since 2010 let alone fund them. There was a story CNBC did a few years ago by Darren Rovell(now on ESPN I think) where it was said that the American Cancer Society actually privately unhappy with Livestrong because they think it diverted funds that would have otherwise gone to them because lance was so famous people donated to his charity believing it was funding research that it actually wasn't.

So its tough he absolutely did alot of good for cancer awareness, but it's not clear how much good.

Note it's impossible to prove that his doping led to cancer although there are clearly suspicions it might have, but the fascinating thing documented in several books is his MASKING of the doping probably led to his cancer not being discovered earlier. There have been several cases of elite athletes discovering they had cancer during drug tests because the high levels of white blood cells etc show up in the tests. Lance was apparently taking masking agents to conceal his doping and it's been widely speculated that's why his cancer was so advanced before it was discovered. It should have been found earlier.

He's in some trouble now, the Tour De France has already publicly stated they expect Lance to refund his winnings from the 7 tour titles. There is probably going to be a slew of lawsuits against him as well from people he publicly defamed.

You're the lawyer but my understanding is the big problem in defamation suits is proving the person knew what they were saying was false, and that they intended to do harm to the person by stating false things. Clearly in this situation if Lance was lying, he's been guilty of defamation MANY times and it would seem pretty easy to prove?

I was reading a blog this morning where the author speculates Lance better have some good advisors if he wants to avoid BK over all this and that might be another reason he withdrew as head of Livestrong he wants to make sure his personal financial issues don't impact the charity.

 

[Russ Smith]

here they come, SCA the Texas insurance firm said they are demaning Lance repay 7.5 million he got for winning the TDF. They said the terms of the payments required that he win the TDF, since he's no longer the winner, he has to repay the money.

They settled with Lance a few years ago when the judge ruled nothing in the deal required Lance to be clean, so if he won, he got paid. The terms of the settlement apparently preclude them from later challenges but SCA believes that because Lance is no longer the official winner, they are entitled to repayment.

They haven't yet sued it sounds like they have to go through the same arbitration with the same people if Lance refuses to pay them the money back.

 

[Russ Smith]

Worst example yet of what Lance was doing, from Kathy LeMond wife of 3 Time TDF champ Greg LeMond.

Lance was mad that Greg had said he was disappointed to find out Lance was working with known doping doctor Michele Ferrari. First Lance called LeMond and told him he'd find 10 people that would swear LeMond used EPO himself during his career.

Later Kathy said a former teammate of her husbands told her Lance offered him 300K if he'd publicly state that Greg LeMond used EPO during his career! The former teammate refused to comply.