David Walsh - From Lance to Landis: Inside the American Doping Controversy at the Tour de France

CONTENTS

For John

GLOSSARY

blood doping: the manipulation of blood within a persons body by means of drugs or transfusions.

carbon isotope test: a sophisticated test that can identify synthetic testosterone in urine.

CAS: Court of Arbitration for Sport; hears athletes appeals against doping convictions.

centrifuge: an apparatus consisting of a compartment that is spun about a central axis; can be used to measure hematocrit.

CONI: the Italian Olympic Committee.

corticosteroids/corticoids: steroid hormone produced by the adrenal cortex or synthesized; without a therapeutic exemption, presence of synthesized corticosteroids/corticoids in an athletes body constitutes doping.

directeur sportif: sports director of a professional cycling team.

quipier: a professional cyclist who rides for the team and its leader.

hematocrit: the amount of red blood cells in the blood expressed as a percentage of total blood volume.

human growth hormone: often written as HGH; widely abused as a performance-enhancing drug.

LNDD: Laboratoire National de Dpistage du Dopage; French national anti-doping laboratory.

passive doping: the suffering and demoralization experienced by clean athletes trying to compete against doped rivals.

Pot Belge: the slang name given to a cocktail of recreational drugs abused by some professional cyclists.

r-EPO: recombinant erythropoietin; a drug that stimulates the production of red blood cells.

soigneur: literally means carer the name given to a masseur or masseuse on a cycling team.

testosterone: a hormone abused by athletes in its synthetic form.

UCI: Union Cycliste Internationale; the world body that governs the sport of cycling.

USAC: USA Cycling; formerly USCF, United States Cycling Federation.

USADA: United States Anti-Doping Agency.

WADA: World Anti-Doping Agency.

DRAMATIS PERSONAE

Lance Armstrong: retired seven-time winner of the Tour de France

Dr. Greg Strock: former elite-level U.S. amateur cyclist

Ren Wenzel: Greg Strocks one-time coach

George Hincapie: professional cyclist, longtime teammate of Armstrong, currently riding with the Discovery team

Kevin Livingston: former professional cyclist and teammate of Armstrong

Greg LeMond: former three-time winner of, and first American to win, the Tour de France

Frankie Andreu: former racer, and former friend and teammate of Armstrong

Betsy Andreu: wife of Frankie Andreu

Andy Hampsten: former racer and teammate of LeMond and, later, Armstrong

Professor Francesco Conconi: controversial Italian doctor, accused of doping athletes

Dr. Michele Ferrari: former protg of Professor Conconi, onetime trainer of Armstrong, also accused of doping athletes

Hein Verbruggen: former president of the world cycling authority, Union Cycliste Internationale

Stephen Swart: former racer and onetime teammate of Armstrong on Motorola team

Emma OReilly: former head soigneur for the the U.S. Postal Service team, and former masseuse of Armstrong

Tyler Hamilton: onetime teammate of Armstrong on the U.S. Postal Service team, subsequently banned for two years following doping offense

Dr. Prentice Steffen: former doctor for the U.S. Postal Service team

Jonathan Vaughters: former racer and former teammate of Armstrong on the U.S. Postal Service team

Stephanie McIlvain: Oakley sportswear employee responsible for direct relationship with Armstrong

Dr. Michael Ashenden: Australian anti-doping expert

Floyd Landis: winner of 2006 Tour de France, subsequently accused of cheating

PROLOGUE

M onday, July 19, 1999. It is a rest day on the Tour de France and the races three-thousand-strong entourage has set up camp in the Pyrenean town of Saint-Gaudens. After two weeks on the road, it is an opportunity for the Tours traveling community to draw breath before the final push north to Paris. For Benot Hopquin, a journalist with the French daily newspaper Le Monde, it is another day at the office. He attends the press conference of the champion-elect Lance Armstrong and is at the pressroom later in the afternoon when he takes a phone call from a source in Paris. They disagree over something Hopquin wrote a few days before, but things soon cool down and they talk about the Tour. During the first week of the race there had been a story about riders testing positive for corticoids and a rumor that Armstrong had been one. Hopquin tells his source about the press conference and Armstrongs insistence that he has never used corticoids and didnt have a medical exemption for any banned product. Ce nest pas vrai (Its not true), says the source, teasingly, because he is in a position to know. What are you saying? asks Hopquin. The source refuses to elaborate, preferring to leave the journalist with an impression. Hopquins impression is that Armstrong has tested positive for corticoids.

Hopquin spoke with his Le Monde colleagues, Yves Bordenave and Philippe Le Coeur, and they began calling contacts who might know the truth. They rang a source at the French Ministry of Youth and Sport, they called the national anti-doping laboratory at Chtenay-Malabry, they left two messages for the head of the medical commission of Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI), Leon Schattenberg, but they couldnt confirm the story. They tracked down UCI president Hein Verbruggen, who said he had not been advised about a positive test for Armstrong. The following morning, the journalists went back to Hopquins original source. He agreed to meet a representative of the newspaper and to show him the medical report forms of the riders who had tested positive for corticoids. A senior editor from Le Monde went to the rendezvous and saw a medical report for Armstrong that showed he had tested positive for corticoids following a drug test on the first weekend of the race. The journalist looked down the form to the part where it said Mdicaments Pris (medications taken), and the word nant (none) was written. Le Monde believed it was on to an important story.

From the newspapers point of view, Armstrongs insistence that he did not have a therapeutic exemption was critical. Corticoids are banned but may be legally taken if supported by a doctors prescription. At the previous days press conference and in an answer to a journalist from LEquipe eleven days before, Armstrong categorically said he did not have any medical exemptions. Journalists from Le Monde contacted U.S. Postal Service team spokesman Dan Osipow and were told the team would wait for an official declaration from UCI before making any comment.

Twelve days before, the U.S. Postal Service team had been told about the presence of cortisone in Armstrongs drug test. Selected at random, Postal rider Kevin Livingston was accompanied to the medical caravan by the teams directeur sportif, Johan Bruyneel. There, the two men heard about the positive test, and then for twelve days, there was nothing, until