Lance Armstrong Denies (Yet More) Doping Charges
Lance Armstrong has been accused, yet again, of having used performance enhancing drugs.
“Yet again, a European newspaper has reported that I have tested positive for performance enhancing drugs. Tomorrow?s L?Equipe, a French sports daily, is reporting that my 1999 samples were positive. Unfortunately, the witch hunt continues and tomorrow?s article is nothing short of tabloid journalism…I will simply restate what I have said many times: I have never taken performance enhancing drugs.”
I can not say that I am very surprised that these claims are being made, having touched on the subject when Armstrong retired. Bernard Moon was a bit more pessimistic than myself about the possibility of Armstrong actually being a cheater, but I still maintain that I believe that he is clean. After passing 178 drug tests despite the best efforts of various folks to prove he cheated, I think the guy is entitled to at least the benifit of the doubt.
- What is EPO?
- This Week Last Year: Drugs, Bombs, and World Records
- Bad Bans by the USADA
- Lance Armstrong Denies (Yet More) Doping Charges (Part II)
- Lance Armstrong’s name is cleared
August 23rd, 2005 at 4:02 pm
Please trust that you have mass amounts of support! Thank you for your never ending inspiration! You’ve made such a difference in many lives!
August 24th, 2005 at 3:12 pm
I think that if they still have a bottle of pee-pee from 1999 handy they have bigger problems than whether or not Lance was using performance enhancing drugs.
August 24th, 2005 at 4:13 pm
Nicely put, Michelle. I wonder, though: if they are testing it now for a substance that wasn’t banned in 1999, is it still cheating? Not that I believe yet that they actually found him to be cheating.
August 25th, 2005 at 2:37 am
Just for some background information:
EPO is a naturally occurring hormone found in the body. It is produced in the renal cortex of the kidneys whenever red blood cells start running low. It can also be triggered by anemia, lack of iron in the blood due to … oh, let’s say chemotheraphy. Yet another trigger that causes it’s production is training hard in high altitude conditions where lower oxygen levels stimulate increased EPO levels. This is something any first year anatomy student learns. Get real jerks!!! The guy’s got talent, unlike some journalistic hacks!!
August 25th, 2005 at 7:14 am
Thanks, Le Ann, I did not know anything specific about the drug itself. You have to look at the source, though; the French especially have been trying to prove that he has cheated ever since he won his first one. What better way than to come up with a pseudo-scientific claim that leaves no room for him to defend himself?
December 13th, 2005 at 1:29 pm
[...] This is all cause for these two athletes to be thrown under a microscope for the rest of their careers, and for their blood and urine samples to be frozen for later testing once better methods are developed. This is a call to question their integrity and to put them through the same kind of rigorous testing procedures that Lance Armstrong has had to endure for several years. [...]
December 16th, 2005 at 12:08 pm
further to Le Ann’s post, although EPO is an endogenous hormone there are now urine tests that identify recombinant EPO (ie exogenous administration)…
before this test it used to be the case that they would test indirectly by measuring hematocrit (sp?), which a reading outside the normal bounds could have been argued as being naturally stimulated EPO production. this is no longer the case.
May 31st, 2006 at 5:29 pm
[...] A Dutch anti-doping agency has exhonerated Lance Armstrong and claims that not only is there validity to the testing methods that were used, but that the testing methods may have been illegal to begin with. [...]
February 23rd, 2007 at 10:09 am
[...] this week, French newspaper L’Equipe accused Lance Armstrong of cheating, and that he used EPO during his 1999 Tour De France win. I predicted that this would happen when [...]
August 31st, 2007 at 7:00 am
[...] my most popular articles about Lance Armstrong were published this week last year after he had to deny more doping charges (which also had a follow up article a few days later.) I also wrote a detailed article about what [...]