I think he underplayed transformation in the sport. As much as he is not my cup of tea the favourite for this years tour ainât a doper. Nor is last years winner. Nor is this years Giro winner. Even if some of old guard like Menchov are juiced up that is pretty remarkable change in the sport.
Martin is young yet. Still expect him to do something in tour this year. Long way to go before he becomes a GC Grand Tour rider though.
Yep, Nurofen Plus alright. Shoulder in shit and now hip after doing a bastard 5 mile run the other week. Plus all the walking too and from the gig last night didnât help. Wonât be up there tomorrow, hang back in the group I reckon.
Seeks temporary restraining order against proceedings
Lance Armstrong filed a lawsuit Monday in U.S. federal court in Texas against the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency, seeking to block the agencyâs proceedings against him on charges that he doped during his career.
The lawsuit claims that USADA rules violate an athleteâs constitutional right to a fair trial, and that the agency doesnât have jurisdiction in his case.
âMr. Armstrong brings this Complaint against USADA and its CEO, Travis Tygart, to prevent imminent violations of Mr. Armstrongâs Constitutional and common law due process rights, by which the Defendants would strip Mr. Armstrong of his livelihood, his seven Tour de France titles, and the many other honors he has won in his world-renowned cycling career,â reads the final brief, which was submitted along with the motion for a temporary restraining order.
Armstrongâs lawyer Mark Fabiani provided BikeRadar with the motion for temporary restraining order as well as two related documents, a 111-page final complaint and a 57-page final brief. These latter documents present the larger case of Armstrongâs position, asserting his innocence of all charges.
On June 30, USADA announced its intent to file doping charges against Armstrong. As with all USADA charges, the athlete has the option to accept USADAâs sanctions â usually a suspension from competition and, when applicable, a stripping of titles â or to contest the charges before a three-personal arbitration panel. In both the filed complaint and the final brief, Armstrongâs camp derides the arbitration panel as a âkangaroo court.â
Both Floyd Landis and Tyler Hamilton went through this same arbitration panel at the US level after USADA filed doping charges against them, and, after losing, both appealed to the international Court of Arbitration for Sport.
Armstrongâs filed motion asks the court to immediately impose a restraining order against USADA, âbecause USADA seeks to force Mr. Armstrong to choose by 5:00 pm eastern on July 14, 2012 either to participate in USADAâs pre-ordained proceeding or to agree to skip the pretense altogether and accept USADAâs sanctions. Those sanctions would include a lifetime ban on his ability to compete and the stripping of his cycling achievements, including his seven Tour de France titles. If Mr. Armstrong does not respond, then, on 5:01 pm eastern of the same day, USADA will automatically and unilaterally impose these sanctions.â
When asked for comment by BikeRadar, USADA provided the following statement from CEO Travis Tygart.
âUSADA was built by athletes on the principles of fairness and integrity,â the statement reads. âLike previous lawsuits aimed at concealing the truth, this lawsuit is without merit and we are confident the courts will continue to uphold the established rules which provide full constitutional due process and are designed to protect the rights of clean athletes and the integrity of sport.â
He will probably get it in a court in Texas, Larry. Travis Tygart, what an excellent name.
This has just been dismissed. Can file another appeal in 20 days.
Judge was quite damning of Armstrong yesterday I thought. Accused him of playing up to media and not concentrating on real issues. Armstrong seems to think his best tactic is to attack USADA and try and bring whole organisation down.
Anyway not looking good for him.
The United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) announced today that Dr. Luis Garcia del Moral (cycling team doctor), Dr. Michele Ferrari (cycling team consulting doctor) and Jose âPepeâ MartĂ (cycling team trainer) have all received lifetime periods of ineligibility as the result of their anti-doping rule violations in the United States Postal Service (USPS) Cycling Team Doping Conspiracy.
The other three respondents in the case, Lance Armstrong, Johan Bruyneel and Dr. Pedro Celaya, have either asked for arbitration to go forward or have been given five-day extensions. Armstrongâs attorneys yesterday filed a federal lawsuit against USADA[/url], calling the investigation âunconstitutionalâ, but it was [url=âhttp://www.cyclingnews.com/news/armstrongs-federal-lawsuit-against-usada-dismissedâ]dismissed by a Texas judge for containing too much extraneous information.
USADA CEO Travis Tygart confirmed to Cyclingnews that Ferrari, Del Moral and Marti accepted their lifetime bans. "The respondents chose not to waste resources by moving forward with the arbitration process, which would only reveal what they already know to be the truth of their doping activity.
âThe objective of USADAâs investigation into the sport of cycling is to protect the rights of clean athletes by ridding sport of those in the system, whether coach, doctor, trainer, or manager who abuses their influence by encouraging, coercing or assisting athletes in cheating through the use of dangerous performance-enhancing drugs,â said Tygart.
âWhen USADA has information about the existence of a sophisticated, far-reaching doping conspiracy, it is our duty under the established rules to conduct a thorough, fair investigation to uncover the truth. Permanently banning these individuals from sport is a powerful statement that protects the current and next generation of athletes from their influence, and preserves the integrity of future competition.â
Dr. Michele Ferrari, already banned for life in Italy for alleged doping offenses, consulted with the US Postal Service team and Discovery Channel teams during Armstrongâs seven-year Tour de France reign, USADA stated. The Italian was accused in this case of developing a mixture of testosterone and olive oil which was administered orally to help with recovery. He is also said to have advised riders on the use of EPO, of which he once famously said âis not dangerous, only its abuse. Itâs as dangerous as drinking ten litres of orange juiceâ.
Ferrari is said to have helped riders to inject the drug intravenously to avoid having the EPO be detected in the urine test, as well as having assisted in blood doping. He provided riders with detailed training plans with codes indicating when EPO should be used and at what dosage.
Armstrong, as recently as last autumn, denied any involvement with Ferrari, stating that the Italian was a friend only - despite an international investigation that reportedly found otherwise.
Dr. Luis Garcia del Moral, of Valencia, Spain, was the team physician for the USPS Cycling Team from 1999 through 2003. He was accused of helping cyclists including the USPS team members to carry out performance enhancing doping including blood transfusions as well as saline infusions to prevent the doping from being detected by blood value checks. Del Moral was also accused of administering EPO, testosterone, corticosteroids and human growth hormone, all of which are banned by the WADA code.
Del Moral was famously videotaped disposing of the USPS teamâs medical waste at the 2000 Tour de France, which journalists searched, finding packages of Actovegin, an extract of calfâs blood. The incident was investigated by the French authorities, but was eventually closed without incident.
In 2011, a visit with Del Moral[/url] led Australian Trent Lowe to be sacked from the Garmin team [url=âhttp://www.cyclingnews.com/news/garmin-cervelo-dismisses-matt-whiteâ]along with his then-director Matt White, although Lowe insisted the visit was for a normal UCI health check.
Marti served as a trainer for the USPS and Discovery Channel teams from 1999-2007, and followed Bruyneel to the Astana Cycling Team. He was given a lifetime ban for delivering doping products âincluding EPO, testosterone, human growth hormone (hGH) and cortisone from Valencia, Spain to locations where the riders were living in Europe including Nice, France and Girona, Spain and at training camps and cycling racesâ, and assisting with the administration of âEPO, saline infusions for avoiding detection by drug testing and in transfusing blood to ridersâ.
USADA cited âaggravating circumstances including involvement in multiple anti-doping rule violations as well as trafficking, administration and/or attempted administration of a prohibited substance or methodâ to justify the lifetime bans.
The bans will preclude all three men from having any involvement in sports which are signatories to the WADA code.
They mentioned this on OTB. Judge completely dismissed it as a PR stunt and said there was nothing of relevance in it.
Blood is at the heart of the USADAâs case against Lance Armstrong, specifically 38 blood samples taken from 2008 to 2012, in the custody of the USADA, and which are said to show suspicious fluctuations, an American newspaper reported. The American anti-doping agency hopes to use those tests along with witnesses to establish that Armstrong used banned drugs or methods.
The samples were taken between October 16, 2008, and April 30, 2012, so they include his three âcomebackâ years of 2009 to 2011 with Astana and RadioShack. The samples were âsubjected to a battery of scientific tests in accredited laboratories.,â and have since then been âcarefully storedâ, according to the New York Daily News. Fifteen of the tests date from 2010 to 2012.
According to the newspaper, the blood samples show major fluctuations in his hematocrit ratio. For example, it said, his hematocrit on May 31 2009, was 38.2% but 45.7% only a few weeks later, on June 16.
It is expected that Armsrong will challenge this evidence âby summoning medical experts who may say that a personâs hematocrit score could conceivably jump 7.5 percentage points in 16 days because of external influences like changes in altitude and heavy perspiration.â For example, he was in Aspen, Colorado, USA, at nearly 8000 feet above sea level between the two above-mentioned tests.
USADA is expected to provide its own experts who will rebut that argument and claim that the numbers reflect the use of illegal products or methods.
So in his 7 consecutive Tour wins he was clean. I think it is a bit of a witch hunt to be honest. I have great admiration for the man. Itâs a personal thing regarding how he got over his battle with cancer.
But what if his former team mates are testifying that they saw him doping? Why would they lie? we all know the dopers are always a number of steps ahead of the testers.
The whole idea of 7 consecutive Tours wins I find hard to accept. We saw Evans yesterday how hard it is to retain the title.
Plus he tested positive on several occasions during 99-05. The intimidation of others and the bully boy attitude arenât nice either.
We could be here in 10 years time still discussing this. At the moment the man is innocent, passed every test he had to do, was always above board regarding testing as far as we know. His Tours were won clean and their is nothing to suggest otherwise yet. The man is being witch hunted. It took a long time for his team mates to come out, why was that ?. it could be pretty damning evidence when they do speak. We will have to wait and see I suppose.
What did he test positive for Larry, I didnât know that or is it just allegations. I taught their was nothing proved. To be honest i more interest in the actual racing than all the clinic stuff. It just overshadows all the good things about cycling.
agree we could talk about this forever. Lifes too short.
EPO several times.HGH also
David Walshâs book is interesting on the subject.
I didnât think anyone thought he was clean at this stage.
Where is the proof Larry, he never got done for anything or served suspensions.
Iâll post up later Anto as in work presently. There is a huge amount of evidence against him.
No bother as I am just curious. I wouldnât have as much knowledge as you, when it comes to doping issueâs. The way I see it, he is still innocent at the moment, as he hasnât being done for anything.