Doping or not? Read this:

Here is an accumulation of information taken from the web on the
subject. Make your own conclusions but I think it is impossible to come
up with any other conclusion other than that the entire sport is doped
and that the UCI is complacent and complicit. There is no other
reasonable conclusion.

EPO, HGH, IGF, anabolic steroids, corticosteroids,
bronchodilators, vasodilators and vasoconstrictors, potent
analgesics, creatine, Actovegin


Lance also tested positive for corticoids which he claimed he was using
to treat saddle sores. He was exonerated after a second test showed no
'systematic use'.

More info on corticoids:

ALTERNATIVE DOPING CONTROL FOR CORTICOIDS BY HAIR ANALYSIS WITH LC/MS
P. Kintz, V. Cirimele, J.S. Raul, J.P. Goullé, B. Ludes Institut de
Médecine Légale, 11 rue Humann, F-67000 Strasbourg, France

Cortisone and hydrocortisone, naturally occuring homones, influence
metabolism, inflammation, electrolyte and water balance …Their synthetic
derivatives are used in therapeutic for their anti-inflammatory and
immunosuppressive actions. They are used in certain sports to improve
the performances of the athletes (euphoria, motor activity). Repetitive
abuse of corticosteroids by athletes can be demonstrated by segmental
analysis along the hair shaft, in contrast to ponctual urinalysis. A
single treatment of about 1 week will positive a single 1-cm segment,
while long-term abuse will lead to the identification of the corticoïd
(s) in several segments. For such an application, particularly in case
of longitudinal survey of athletes, hair analysis appears as the
solution of choice to document doping practices. However, this procedure
does not allow the discrimination between local administration, that is
permitted with a medical prescription, and systemic use, that is banned.
Hair strands were washed in methylene chloride, pulverized in a ball
mill and 100 mg of the powdered hair were incubated in 1 ml Soerensen
buffer, pH 7.6 for 16 h at 40 °C, in presence of 5 ng cortisol-d3 used
as internal standard. Purification of the incubation medium was achieved
on SPE C18 Isolute extraction columns followed by an alkaline
liquid-liquid extraction with diethylether. The eluate was evaporated to
dryness and resuspended in 25 µl of acetonitrile. The chromatography was
operated on a Nucleosil C18 1 mm column using a linear gradient of
acetonitrile from 30 to 70% in 15 min. The detector was a Perkin Elmer
Sciex API 100 mass spectrometer. Physiological concentrations (n=25) of
cortisone and cortisol were in the range 2 to 132 (mean 42 pg/mg) and 2
to 57 pg/mg (mean 15 pg/mg), respectively. Concentrations were not
dependant on hair colour (probably due to the absence of a nitrogen atom
in the structure), but seemed to be age-dependant. A general screening
procedure was established to test 10 corticosteroids (triamcinolone,
prednisolone, prednisone, methylprednisone, cortisone, cortisol, beta-
and dexa-methasone, flumethasone and beclomethasone), with LODs in the
range 1 to 30 pg/mg. Prednisone was identified in the hair (30 à 130
pg/mg, mean 65 pg/mg) of 9/10 patients daily treated by Cortancyl® at 5
to 60 mg/day, in an apparent dose-concentration relationship. A single
therapeutic treatment can be documented, as demonstrated by the unique
identification of betamethasone in the hair, at 4.7 pg/mg, of a subject
receiving for 9 consecutive days 4 mg of the drug. By segmental
analyses, no migration of betamethasone was observed in the hair shaft.
Finally, in case of 2 cyclists, segmental hair analyses demonstrated
chronic abuse of triamcinolone and betamethasone over several months.


(Short hair would be beneficial.)


List of CORTICOIDS & DIURETICS

http://www.innovrsrch.com/corticoids___diuretics.html




Dope And Glory Were American Athletes Given Performance-Enhancing Drugs
Without Their Knowledge?


(CBS) In 1990, Greg Strock was one of the greatest bicycle racers in
America. At the age of 17, he was flying past cycling records,
blistering the road on his way out of Indiana and into the world.

"It was kind of a blur," he told 60 Minutes II Correspondent Scott
Pelley. "You know, one minute I'm riding my bike in the cornfields, and,
and the next minute I'm on the national team, and going to Moscow for
the junior Worlds."

The national teams are where America's Olympic athletes are trained,
and Strock was on the fast track. Lance Armstrong and five future
Olympians were also riding for America that year. Strock never made it
to the Olympics. At the top of his game, he was struck down by a
catastrophic illness.

"I was sleeping 18 hours a day, my knees were swollen," he said. "I was
having trouble walking up stairs, walking down stairs, and had sore
throats, large lymph node swelling in my, my neck and my groin, and
under my arms."

Doctors thought it was AIDS, then lymphatic cancer. It turned out to be
a breakdown in Strock's immune system that no one could explain. After
failed comebacks, Strock gave up his Olympic dream for medical school.
It was there, while studying steroids, that he became suspicious about
his coaches on the cycling team.

Strock believes he was given banned drugs to enhance his performance -
dope that he says ruined his health. He's now suing U.S.A. Cycling,
which is in charge of Olympic training.

Strock says the doping began in France, when he was racing poorly
because of a bad cold. His condition improved rapidly after the U.
Q.team coach gave him pills that were supposedly vitamins and an
injection which he says the coach called extract of cortisone.

But there's no such thing as an extract of cortisone. Cortisone is a
cortico-steroid, banned in the kind of injections that Strock describes.
In large doses, cortisone depresses the immune system, and Strock says
those injections became routine.

Strock thought he was alone until he filed his lawsuit 5 months ago and
got a call from someone he hadn't seen in 10 years - Erich Kaiter, his
teammate at U.S.A. Cycling.

"We were given the same injections at the same times, and we raced
together pretty much at every race during that year," Kaiter said. "And
I became very ill with a lot of the same symptoms that I now know Greg
suffered."

They don't know what was in those syringes, and they don't recall taking
a drug test in those days. But they say the injections were given by the
U.S.A. Cycling staff, including coach Rene Wenzel, trainer Angus Fraser
and, according to documents, coach Chris Carmichael.

Strock and Kaiter are convinced that that was a program of doping, and
there is considerable evidence that, in U.S. Olympic sport, doping has
reached much further than you might imagine.

That charge comes from an insider: Dr. Wade Exum, who was in charge of
doping control at the U.S. Olympic committee until last summer, three
months before the Sydney games.

Told there was a serious program to eliminate doping from U.S. sports,
Exum now believes "it was all a sham."

Exum says drug tests, done at random during training and competition,
routinely crossed his desk, showing athletes were doping.

"In the last year that I was at the US Olympic Committee," he said,
"there were positive tests for anabolic steroids in badminton. I had
anabolic steroid positives in shooting when I was at the Olympic
Committee."

Exum is suing the USOC, saying it undermined his effort to protect
athletes. He is offering his records in court. But the committee is
asking the judge to keep the records confidential because "public
disclosure of these documents would cause annoyance and possible
embarrassment for many individual athletes..."

Exum estimated that fewer than one in seven American athletes who tested
positive for banned substances, was ever sanctioned.

Last fall, Joseph Califano, the head of the National Center on Addiction
and Substance Abuse, finished a two-year study of Olympic doping. He
says there is a mindset that you can't compete successfully in the
Olympics today if you're not using dope.

Califano says it was tough to get hard information because he had great
difficulty, just as 60 Minutes II had, in getting cooperation from
R. S. Olympic officials.

"I think you get silent treatment from people when they have something
to hide," Califano said.

For several months, the U.S. Olympic Committee and U.S.A. Cycling have
declined to be interviewed In a letter, the USOC said Exum's allegations
"are patently false" and Strock's legal actions are "without merit."

Carmichael, who is currently Lance Armstrong's coach, said "the Strock
issue is in litigation so I am not going to comment on it."

Angus Fraser declined an interview; Wenzel says he never gave any
injections. He left the team in 1992 in what he called a downsizing. The
USOC says he was fired for doping.

"I believe we were being doped, we were being groomed," Strock said.

Exum said not all Olympic athletes were doping: "I think that there are
a lot of athletes who end up in fourth place because they're not using
substances."

News - 05/07/2001 Bassons quits cycling

Christophe Bassons, seen by many as the face of drug-free cycling since
the doping scandals of 1998 that enveloped the Festina team, has decided
to retire from the sport. "We had a meeting on Wednesday afternoon.
Christophe Bassons asked me to break the contract that was binding him
with our team until the end of the year," Delatour team chief Michel
Gros said. Bassons, who started riding professionally in 1996, became
the symbol of a cleaner sport when with almost his entire team
implicated in the scandal, his teammates admitted he was one of the only
riders in the team who had refused to take the performance enhancers.

With his team kicked out of the race in 1998 for doping, Bassons
recently said he was "fed up" with cycling and that he had had to put up
with "harassment" from other competitors.

"My current experience is hard to live and I'm afraid I might crack up,"
he told daily newspaper Liberation in an interview last week.

The Frenchman also said that during the 1999 Tour de France, American
cyclist Lance Armstrong had approached him and told him it was in the
best interests of the sport if he quit the race.

"...during a stage, Armstrong came to me and told me I was doing a lot
of harm to cycling", Bassons told Reuters. "He (Armstrong) told me I
had better go home," he said of quitting that race and skipping the
event in 2000.

(Let's focus on the facts and history of what appears to be
mounting evidence and not resort to personal attacks when
responding to this post.)

When asked point blank about whether he has ever used performance
enhancing drugs.

"The only thing I can say is that I never tested positive or was ever
caught for anything."

When asked about other cyclists guilty of doping:

"For me, once they have served their time, I look at them all as
clean riders."

On his relationship since 1995 with Dr. Ferrari who has been charged
with doping and doping procedures.

"I'm confident in the relationship, I've never denied the relationship.
I believe he's an honest man, I believe he's an innocent man. I've never
seen something to make me believe otherwise."

Simeoni is suing Armstrong for a symbolic amount when Armstrong called
Simeoni 'a liar' based on his testimony in the Ferrari trial.

Simeoni appears to be honest despite the cost to his own reputation and
career. Simeoni had to serve a suspension as the result of his own
honesty and openness.

Some note on Simeoni:

Simeoni told Soprani he worked with Ferrari between October 1996 and
July 1997 and alleges Ferrari advised him how to dodge the tests for
blood thickness, intended to restrict the use of EPO.

In one of his diaries Simeoni wrote: "Doctor Ferrari advised me to use
two alternatives: Hemagel [a blood thinning agent] on the morning of the
control, albumin [an element contained in white blood cells] on the
evening before a possible control."

(these procedures assist getting below detectable limits for HGH and
EPO)

Simeoni, who won four races last year, said Ferrari had not warned him
about possible side-effects and that he stopped working with him
because he felt Ferrari was giving preferential treatment to others.
"Ferrari did not treat me with the same efficiency he showed to other
athletes," he said.


Simeoni on Armstrong:

"I'm determined to take this all the way. I decided to start legal
action against Armstrong because he told lies about me.

"I did my duty as a citizen and told the truth during the Ferrari trial.
I was suspended from racing and humiliated in front of everybody and
don't deserve to be called a liar by Armstrong."

(from velonews.com) In the response filed with the court, Wenzel also
names the other coach who was allegedly present in a hotel room with him
and Strock in Spokane, Washington, in August of 1990. While conceding
that he accompanied Strock to the room occupied by then-U.S. national
coach Chris Carmichael, Wenzel said the two did not go to the room for
an injection of "extract of cortisone," or a performance-enhancing drug,
as was alleged in Strock's suit.

"Mr. Wenzel admits that Mr. Carmichael had a briefcase from which he
produced a vitamin injection," but added that the injection was made at
Strock's request.

When contacted by VeloNews, Carmichael said he had "no recollection
of an alleged incident that happened more than 10 years ago." When
asked if he had ever been contacted in the case by Strock or his
attorneys, Carmichael said that he didn't care to comment on any
aspect of the matter beyond noting that he didn't recall the alleged
incident in question.

Apparently later Chris remembered the incident well enough to make an
out of court settlement to Strock. Of course if you injected 100's of
riders 1000's of times there would be no reason that one single
injection would stand out of what was a routine.



By Lynn Zinser /The Gazette Edited by Kamon Simpson; headline by Andy
Obermueller A former junior national cyclist is suing USA Cycling and a
former coach, claiming he was injected with performance-enhancing drugs
that wrecked his career and threatened his health. Greg Strock, a
promising cyclist in the early '90s, said in his lawsuit that junior
national coach Rene Wenzel administered the drugs 10 years ago with no
medical supervision and told Strock at the time that they were vitamins
or "extract of cortisone." The suit was filed Friday in U.S. District
Court in Denver. Strock is represented by the same lawyers involved in a
suit against the U.S. Olympic Committee by its former drug control
administrator, Wade Exum, who claimed the USOC discriminated against him
and thwarted his drug-testing efforts. Strock's suit is only against USA
Cycling and doesn't mention the USOC. USA Cycling officials, who
received a copy of the suit Monday afternoon, responded only with a
statement saying they would investigate the charges. Strock alleges the
doping occurred in April 1990, when he was 17, after he joined the
junior national team for a race in France, and continued through that
year. One of his teammates at the time was Lance Armstrong, now a
two-time Tour de France winner. Strock did not comment on his lawsuit
Monday but said during a television interview in September that, "I
would have no reason to believe that...other members (of the national
team) wouldn't have been given the same substances." He also said he
never saw any other cyclists injected, nor did he discuss it with his
teammates. Strock thinks the injections were cortisone, a steroid not
only banned as a performance-enhancing drug but an immunosuppressant
that left him vulnerable to a virus that ended his career. "We've talked
to a lot of experts and considering Greg's reaction to the experience
and the fact that it was described to him as 'extract of cortisone,'
there's little doubt we can prove it by clear and convincing evidence,"
said John Pineau, Strock's Denver-based attorney. Pineau compared
Strock's treatment with the doping East Germany forced on its athletes
in the '80s, a practice confirmed in recent criminal trials in Germany.
"It was the same thing for the same goal: to win medals," Pineau said.
"They told those kids they were injecting them with vitamins." Pineau
said Strock didn't suspect the injections had harmed him until he
entered medical school and took a pharmacology class. Strock, now a
fourth-year medical student at the University of Indiana, concluded that
the cortisone had weakened his immune system. He said his career was
ruined by a long illness in 1991 diagnosed as parvovirus, normally a
harmless condition except for those with immune deficiencies. In the
lawsuit, Strock appears to try to connect his woes with Armstrong - a
testicular cancer survivor - without mentioning his former teammate by
name: "Medical studies have concluded that this virus has an 85 percent
correlation with testicular cancer." Strock is suing for unspecified
damages based on lost earnings as a potential professional cyclist, as
well as punitive damages. Wenzel was fired by the U.S. Cycling
Federation - the precursor to USA Cycling
- in 1992. He was director of the Saturn professional cycling team until
earlier this year, when he resigned. Wenzel, who lives in McKenzie
Bridge, Ore., did not return phone calls Monday. Pineau said he thinks
that Wenzel was fired when the U.S. Cycling Federation learned of the
doping. USA Cycling officials would not disclose the reason for
dismissal.



He earns $8m a year. Endorsements run to another $5m. He once held a
press conference in New York and the billionaire Donald Trump turned up
to hear him speak. Nowadays, he charges twice as much as former
president Bill Clinton for speaking engagements and when not recounting
history, he is creating it. Lance Armstrong is his name. He is the
world's best cyclist. Yesterday, he launched his bike from a ramp in
Dunkirk and set out on the Tour de France. He is favourite to win for
the third consecutive time and become only the fifth cyclist to do so.
It is not solely success that draws us to Armstrong but also what his
achievements symbolise. Less than five years ago he was stricken with
testicular cancer that spread to his lungs and brain.

Surgeons suggested he might not live but they didn't know their patient.
Armstrong has been to hell and back. First to good health, then to the
famed yellow jersey. His spirit and good drugs enabled him to make the
first part of the journey. But for two years there has been endless
speculation about Armstrong, his remarkable recovery and his
relationship with drugs, not just those taken to kill the cancer but
also those taken by cyclists to help them compete.

Doping is a way of life in professional cycling. It is as old as the
sport itself. Police raids on the 1998 Tour de France and on this year's
Tour of Italy exposed the enormity of the deception that is widespread.
In this game, Mr Clean competes against the majority and against the
odds. Can a clean rider beat those on drugs?

The search for an answer began in Indianapolis six months ago. It is a
Sunday afternoon and the Starbucks cafe is almost empty. Greg Strock,
five months before graduating from medical school, tells of his short
career as an elite cyclist. He was 17-going-on-18; the coaching staff at
USA Cycling told him that not since the great Greg LeMond had anybody
performed better in physiological tests. But it ended before it began.
Strock claims he was told injections were necessary. Within a year, he
became ill and though he would return to competition, he never regained
his former strength.

Ten years have passed. The memory angers him. It takes time, he says, to
appreciate fully what has happened. Strock is suing USA Cycling and his
former coach, Rene Wenzel. Erich Kaiter, his teammate on the US junior
team in 1990, corroborates Strock's story of systematic doping. He, too,
is suing USA Cycling. In the national programme, Strock and Kaiter were
one year behind Armstrong.

From a coffee shop in Indianapolis to a San Francisco restaurant where
Dr Prentice Steffen tells his story. He had been team doctor with the
US Postal team in 1996; the year before Armstrong joined. Towards the
end of that season, US Postal informed Steffen they would no longer
need him. Steffen believes it was because he refused to help with any
kind of drugs.

From a doctor in San Francisco to a former professional on another
continent. This is a man who rode with Armstrong for four years at
Motorola. The team, Armstrong believes, was "white as snow". That is
not what his one-time teammate says. This rider tells of a decision by
certain members of the Motorola squad to use the blood-boosting drug
erythropoietin [EPO] during the 1995 season: "The contract with our
main sponsor was up for renewal and we needed results. It was as
simple as that."

Nothing is so simple for the carabinieri of the Florence-based NAS team
who enforce Italy's food and drug laws. Here in the basement of their
old police quarters in the city, the cardboard boxes are stacked 10-feet
high, each packed with files seized from doctors alleged to have been
doping their athlete-patients. The files seized from Michele Ferrari,
one of the doctors being investigated, show that Kevin Livingston was
one of those treated by Ferrari. During the Tour de France of 1999 and
2000, Livingston was Armstrong's most able equipier, a man he described
as his closest friend. Ferrari also kept an Armstrong file, one that
indicated a role in the rider's training. Asked whether he had ever
visited Ferrari, Armstrong replied: "Perhaps."

From one doping investigation in Italy to another in Paris where Hugues
Huet, a journalist with the state-run television organisation France 3,
tells of how, during last year's Tour de France, he tailed an unmarked
US Postal car and eventually filmed the driver and his companion
disposing of five plastic bags in a bin many miles from their team
hotel. The rubbish contained 160 syringe wrappers, bloodied compresses
and discarded packaging that indicated use of the blood-boosting
product, Actovegin. That led to a nine-month French investigation into
the US Postal team, which will conclude later this month. So many
questions.

Then, out of the blue the phone rang. It was Armstrong. He had heard
things, he wanted to talk. Any time, any place. The interview was
arranged for two days later at Hotel La Fauvelaie, near the village of
St Sylvain d'Anjou in eastern France.


EIGHT years have passed since our last meeting. Back then, Armstrong was
an ambitious 21-year-old setting out on his first Tour de France. The
years have changed him. His body is harder now, the eyes more wary.
There is a sense that come-what-may, he will overcome. He stretches out
his hand, matter-of-factly. He is aware of your suspicions; he wants to
restate his case.

"Do you mind," he says, "if Bill sits in?" (Bill is Bill Stapleton, his
agent and lawyer.)

"I would prefer it to be one-to-one, but your choice."

"Yeah, I'd like Bill present."

"I have come to discuss one subject: doping."

"Okay," he says.

The first part of the interview is a gentle journey through his career.
In late 1992, he joined Motorola and the professional peloton.

You must have been aware by then that doping was part of the culture?

"I don't know the answer to that because Motorola was white as snow and
I was there all the way through to 1996."

What of the Fleche Wallonne classic in 1994 when three members of the
same Italian team Gewiss-Ballon broke away and finished first, second
and third? He had been strong that day but couldn't live with the
Italians. It was unusual for three riders from the same team to break
clear in a classic and suspicions were aroused when, a few days later,
the Gewiss team doctor, one Michele Ferrari, claimed EPO "was no more
harmful than five litres of orange juice". Was Armstrong surprised by
Ferrari's approval of EPO? He says he doesn't remember his reaction.
Surely he wondered what EPO was? "EPO wasn't an issue for us. Jim
Ochowitz [Motorola team manager] ran a clean programme."

Armstrong's recovery from cancer came at a time when the sickness in his
sport was, at last, properly diagnosed. On his way to the 1998 Tour de
France, Willy Voet, a soigneur with the Festina team, was stopped by
French customs officials. His car contained 234 doses of EPO and a cargo
of other banned substances. Armstrong says he was astonished: "It was
unbelievable, the contents of the car."

When he returned to competition in 1998, it was with US Postal.
Armstrong says Postal's programme was clean. He insists he won the Tour
de France in 1999 and 2000 without doping. Others may have doped; he
can't speak for them. Other teams may have used drugs; the authorities
must police them. Armstrong speaks for himself. He has won without
drugs. He is, and always has been, clean.

WE NOW move on to discuss specific incidents in more detail. Armstrong
rode for the US amateur cycling team in the late 1980s and early
1990s. Chris Carmichael was then a US coach and he soon became
Armstrong's coach. Twelve years later, Carmichael remains the
rider's coach. "He is my main advisor, I talk to him all the
time." Carmichael has been implicated in the case taken by Strock
against USA Cycling. In his formal submission, Strock describes
being taken by his coach, Rene Wenzel, to see another US coach
during a race at Spokane in Washington in 1990. Strock tells how
this second coach gave him an injection, but does not name him.
In a formal answer to the Strock suit, Wenzel recalls the same
Spokane encounter and says the other coach was Carmichael.

Asked why he did not name the coach at Spokane, Strock says he is not
in a position to answer that question, and not in a position to say why
he can't. It is believed Carmichael has agreed an out-of-court
settlement with Strock's attorney. Carmichael says he cannot recollect
the incident in Spokane and declined to comment when asked if he had
settled out of court.

Armstrong knows of the case and understands the implications. Has your
coach Chris Carmichael made any settlement with Greg Strock?

"Ask Greg or Chris," says Armstrong.

Didn't Chris explain whether he did or didn't?

"No."

Didn't you ask him?

"As far as I am concerned, it was a case between Greg and his coach,
Rene Wenzel."

What if Carmichael had made a settlement, would that not be a shock?

"Would I be shocked? I haven't even thought about it."

It wouldn't look good, would it?

"Does it look good that Greg Strock just takes the money? Let's flip it
around. Is this about money or is this about principle?" We talk about
the professional teams for whom Armstrong has ridden, Motorola and US
Postal. He insists neither doped: "There are programmes in this sport
and there are athletes that are clean."

A former professional rider who was a contemporary of Armstrong's at
Motorola from 1992 to 1996 tells a different story. Now retired from the
sport, this former professional agreed to speak on the basis that his
name would not be used. Should it become necessary, though, he will come
forward and stand up for his account of the Motorola years.

"The team results in 1994 were not impressive and '95 started off the
same. We had access to the same training as other teams, the same
equipment; we ate the same food, slept the same number of hours but, in
races, we were not as competitive. The picture was becoming clear for
the upcoming Tour de France: we were going to have to give in and join
the EPO race.

"Lance was a key spokesperson when EPO was the topic. From the riders'
point of view, we felt the mounting pressure not only from within the
team but also from what was being said and written about us as a team.
No one starts out wanting to dope but you become a victim of the sport."
As well as believing Motorola was clean, Armstrong says he has proof
that US Postal runs a clean programme. He points to the team's three
weeks of drug-free urine at last year's Tour de France. To the
suggestion that the Tour's tests find only detectable drugs, he replies
that there will always be "cynics and sceptics and zealots".

We talk about Prentice Steffen, team doctor for US Postal in 1996, the
year before Armstrong joined the team. Steffen had been with the team
since 1993, when it was Subaru-Montgomery, and continued as team doctor
in the first year of US Postal's involvement. With Postal's backing came
the ambition to compete against Europe's best. In 1996 they entered the
Tour of Switzerland.

"We were wiped out," said Steffen. "Two of my riders approached me
saying they wanted to 'talk about the medical programme'. It was said
that as a team, we weren't able to get to where we wanted to go with
what I was doing for them. I said, 'Well, right now I am doing
everything I can.' They might have come back with 'more could be
done' and I said, 'Yeah, I understand, but I am not going to be
involved in that'."

Steffen is sure he was being asked to help two riders to dope. After
that informal discussion, relations cooled between the doctor and his
riders. Four months later, a message was left on Steffen's voicemail
saying the team no longer needed him.

In November 1996, Steffen received a letter from firm Keesal, Young and
Logan, attorneys for the US Postal team. The letter said his suspicions
about his departure were incorrect but he would be held responsible for
his comments if he made them public. Until now, Steffen has not spoken
out in public. Armstrong says he is surprised by the doctor's story. But
is it not a serious accusation against the team? "If it's so serious and
so sincere, I would think I would have heard that [before now]."


OUR conversation turns to Kevin Livingston, Armstrong's first lieutenant
and close friend on the US Postal team during the Tour de France
victories. Livingston has been listed as one of 60 riders treated by
Ferrari, the Italian doctor awaiting trial on doping charges.

Ferrari is accused of treating riders with EPO, the drug that increases
the blood's oxygen-carrying red cells and enhances the rider's
endurance. For most humans, red cells account for 43% or 44% of the
total blood volume, a measure known as the haematocrit level. To counter
the abuse of EPO, the authorities now ban riders whose haematocrit
exceeds 50%. The Sunday Times has seen pages from Livingston's file at
Ferrari's office. The readings for his blood parameters are unusual. In
December 1997 Livingston's haematrocrit is recorded at 41.2%. Seven
months later, a few days before the start of the 1998 Tour de France,
Livingston's haematrocrit is 49.9%. Such a variation in a seven-month
period is uncommon.

Did you know Kevin was linked with the doping investigation?

"Yes."

Did you talk with him about it?

"No."

Never?

"No. You keep coming up with all these side stories. I can only comment
on Lance Armstrong. I don't speak for others."

This was your best friend?

"But I don't meddle in their business."

So we speak of Lance Armstrong and Michele Ferrari. Did you ever visit
Dr Ferrari?

"I did know Michele Ferrari."

How did you get to know him?

"When you go to races, you see people. I know every team's doctor. It's
a small community."

Did you ever visit Ferrari?

"Have I been tested by him, gone there and consulted on certain
things? Perhaps."

Sources close to the investigation of Ferrari are more precise about
Armstrong's relationship with the doctor. They tell of a series of
visits by the rider to Ferrari's practice at Ferrara in northern Italy:
two days in March 1999, three days in May 2000, two days in August 2000,
one day in September 2000 and three days in late April/early May of this
year. While he was in Ferrara, Armstrong stayed at the five-star Hotel
Duchessa Isabella and at the four-star Hotel Annunziata.

Is Ferrari a good trainer?

"Regardless of what goes on," he replies, "these guys that are under a
lot of pressure, guys like Conconi, Cecchini, Ferrari; these Italian
guys, they are fantastic minds, great trainers. They know about
physiology."

Francesco Conconi and Ferrari have been investigated on doping charges
and the prosecuting judges have recommended that both be sent for trial.
The case against Luigi Cecchini was dropped.


WE speak about the French investigation into the US Postal team. On last
year's Tour de France two staff members of the US Postal team were
followed by journalists from the TV station, France 3. They were seen to
carry rubbish bags from the team hotel and put them in an unmarked car.
The journalists followed.

The chase lasted for five days. Thirty miles from Morzine, the US Postal
employees dumped the bags in a bin by the side of the road. Tipped off
about the discovery of the blood-boosting drug Actovegin in the medical
waste, French police opened an investigation.

Seven months later, the inquiry has not been completed. Armstrong says
that analyses of blood and urine samples provided by the team to the
investigation are clean. The judge leading the inquiry, Sophie-Helene
Chateau, says such a conclusion is premature.

Who were the team members who dumped that rubbish?

"One was a team doctor, the other was our chiropractor."

Names?

"That's not important."

US Postal said it carried Actovegin to treat riders' abrasions and
to treat a staff member who suffers from diabetes. Who was the
staff member?

"That is medical privacy," says Armstrong.

For more than an hour and a half, we traded punches. At times he was
generous and charming; at others confrontational. Wearied by my
scepticism, he reached for the put-down: "There will always be sceptics,
cynics and zealots." But he knows it is not that simple. He knows, too,
that for the next three weeks on the Tour de France, the questions will
follow him.

Not having the answers won't bother him. What matters is that his urine
and his blood are clear.

Those who expect him to falter, either on the murderous road to Alpe
d'Huez or under the weight of public scepticism, may be in for a long,
long wait.





"For many years now, dating back to 1990, Chris Carmichael has been my
coach and most important technical and training advisor. Others who work
with Chris include Johan Bruyneel, my director sportif, John Cobb, in
charge of aerodynamics, Dr. Luis del Moral, our team physician and Jeff
Spencer my chiropractor.

Also included are my close friends, former Belgian champion Eddy Merckx
and former Motorola team director Jim Ochowitz.

Chris and I met Michele Ferrari during a training camp in San Diego,
California, in 1995. His primary role has always been limited. Since
Chris cannot be in Europe on an ongoing basis, Michele does my
physiological testing and provides Chris with that data on a regular
basis. Chris has grown to trust Michele's opinion regarding my testing
and my form on the bike. And lately, we have been specifically working
on a run at the hour record. I do not know exactly when I will do that,
only that I will in the near future.

He has also consulted with Chris and me on dieting, altitude
preparation, hypoxic training and the use of altitude tents, which are
all natural methods of improvements.

In the past, I have never denied my relationship with Michele Ferrari.
On the other hand, I have never gone out of my way to publicize it. The
reason for that is that he has had a questionable public reputation due
to the irresponsible comments he made in 1994 regarding EPO.

I want to make it clear that I do not associate myself with those
remarks or, for that matter, with anyone who utilizes unethical sporting
procedures. However, in my personal experience I have never had occasion
to question the ethics or standard of care of Michele. Specifically, he
has never discussed EPO with me and I have never used it.

I have always been very clear on the necessity of cycling to be a clean
sport and I have firmly stated that anyone, including me, who tests
positive for banned substances should be severely punished.

As everyone knows, I am one of the very few riders who have no
prescriptions in my health book. I have been repeatedly tested during my
career including during the entire 1999 and 2000 Tours de France and
most recently during the Tour de Suisse ten days ago.

I ask that I be allowed to address these issues publicly at a
later date.

When asked point blank about whether he has ever used performance
enhancing drugs.

"The only thing I can say is that I never tested positive or was ever
caught for anything."

When asked about other cyclists guilty of doping:

"For me, once they have served their time, I look at them all as
clean riders."

On his relationship since 1995 with Dr. Ferrari who has been charged
with doping and doping procedures.

"I'm confident in the relationship, I've never denied the relationship.
I believe he's an honest man, I believe he's an innocent man. I've never
seen something to make me believe otherwise."

Simeoni is suing Armstrong for a symbolic amount when Armstrong called
Simeoni 'a liar' based on his testimony in the Ferrari trial.

Simeoni appears to be honest despite the cost to his own reputation and
career. Simeoni had to serve a suspension as the result of his own
honesty and openness.

Some note on Simeoni:

Simeoni told Soprani he worked with Ferrari between October 1996 and
July 1997 and alleges Ferrari advised him how to dodge the tests for
blood thickness, intended to restrict the use of EPO.

In one of his diaries Simeoni wrote: "Doctor Ferrari advised me to use
two alternatives: Hemagel [a blood thinning agent] on the morning of the
control, albumin [an element contained in white blood cells] on the
evening before a possible control."

(these procedures assist getting below detectable limits for HGH and
EPO)

Simeoni, who won four races last year, said Ferrari had not warned him
about possible side-effects and that he stopped working with him
because he felt Ferrari was giving preferential treatment to others.
"Ferrari did not treat me with the same efficiency he showed to other
athletes," he said.


Simeoni on Armstrong:

"I'm determined to take this all the way. I decided to start legal
action against Armstrong because he told lies about me.

"I did my duty as a citizen and told the truth during the Ferrari trial.
I was suspended from racing and humiliated in front of everybody and
don't deserve to be called a liar by Armstrong."

What do you think now?


Willy Voet comments on blood testing procedu

Willy Voet: It's a joke! When the doctors doing the testing showed up at
6:30 AM, the riders had until 8:15 AM to try to lower their hematocrit
level. All we need is a quarter of an hour to do this. Basically, we run
a liter of water into the bloodstream through an intravenous drip with a
0.09 sodium solution that we inject at high speed, because there is no
risk involved, and we're home free. Twenty minutes later, the hematocrit
level has gone down by about three percent. That is why the UCI has
reduced the time of intervention since then. In any case, we had a
machine equipped with a centrifuge as small as two packets of cigarettes
to check the level in the evening. They're German-made, I believe. At
first we only had one of those because they cost as much as $700, but
the guys were lining up in front of it. Now, almost all of the riders
concerned have their personal machine. Six out of nine Festina riders on
the 1998 TDF own one.

(what is P?) Read further:

Willy Voet: Let's say that it was in code. For instance, instead of one
dose of EPO, I would write an X underlined in red. For a dose of HGH, I
wrote a Z underlined in green. And then there was the P...

PB: The P?

Willy Voet: Well...Uh-oh! Well, I can tell you everything. The P stood
for a new product. It isn't specified in the records because we would
use this subterfuge in telephone conversations when speaking about this
product just in case the telephone was tapped. It is a revolutionary
product. It was Ryckaert who had it used. Some riders had tried it in
1997 and asked for more this year.

PB: How many of them?

Willy Voet: Two or three.... No, four.

PB: In what way is this product revolutionary?

Willy Voet: It is an anabolic steroid. It helps the muscular mass
develop in a spectacular way. It is a tablet that we had shipped from
Portugal. It is taken in a course of treatment. After seven days of
that, which means ten tablets in total, it is undetectable. I guess I
should talk to my lawyer about it.



PARIS, Nov 7 (AFP) - A preliminary inquiry has been opened by the
public prosecutor here into alleged doping within the US Postal team
of two-time Tour de France champion Lance Armstrong, judicial sources
said Tuesday. The inquiry, which got underway on October 18, will
determine whether there is sufficient evidence to pursue further
investigations. French satirical daily Le Canard Enchaine reported
the French judiciary were investigating allegations that the team had
used products containing calves' blood, products whose effects are
similar to those of EPO. EPO increases the blood's ability to store
oxygen and therefore fight fatigue and several sports stars,
including cyclists, have been caught using it. The paper said the
Parisian police specialist drugs detection team had been looking into
the case at the instigation of the Paris prosecutor for the past
three weeks. On Tuesday, French daily "Le Monde" reported that a car
had driven away several boxes from the US Postal camp during this
year's Tour de France and that there was speculation as to their
content. Le Canard Enchaine believed it had the answer. "One thing is
certain: they are boxes (containing) a Norwegian medicine:
actovegin", the paper said. "The phials contain extracts of veal
blood" treated to purify it of toxins. "(It's effectiveness) would
appear to be roughly similar to that of erythropoietin (EPO)," Le
Canard Enchaine reported. Actovegin, which is supposed to treat
arterial deficiency and offset weak blood circulation, is not
currently on the list of banned substances. According to Le Monde, an
anonymous letter was sent to the Paris prosecutor's office referring
to an enquiry into the doping affair by journalists working for
French television. A crew from the station, France 3, witnessed the
car carrying away the boxes in question. Herve Brusini, director of
information of France 3, tried to play down the story Tuesday. "We
are only at the stage of suspicions and you can't base an enquiry on
suspicions and doubts," he told AFP. Jacques de Ceaurriz, director of
the French laboratory charged with uncovering instances of doping,
described actovegin as "an ill-defined product which is not on sale
in France because it is an animal extract." The product, administered
as a gel, is generally used to aid blood circulation. Ceaurriz added
the product was largely used in eastern and Asian countries. The
allegations were levelled at US Postal amid the Festina trial in
Lille, which has heard similar insinuations against Armstrong's team.
"On the Hautacam climb, a climb at the end of the stage (of last
July's Tour de France) (Armstrong) was finding more power at the
summit than at the bottom," said former Festina trainer Antoine
Vayer. Meanwhile at the Lille trial, the court said the verdict would
be handed down on December 22 after a fortnight of intense
deliberations. On Monday, the prosecutor demanded that French cycling
star Richard Virenque should not be sentenced for his part in the
Festina doping scandal. Deputy public prosecutor Gerald Vinsonneau
told the Tribunal there was insufficient evidence to suggest that the
former Festina rider, who admited doping on the second day after
previously denying any wrongdoing, had taken part in organised doping
within his team. However, Vinsonneau requested a 14-month suspended
jail sentence and a 20,000 French Francs (2,600 dollars) fine against
former Festina team masseur Willy Voet, and an 18-month suspended
sentence and 50,000 French Francs (6,600 dollars) fine against former
team sporting director Bruno Roussel. Virenque, five-time winner of
the King of the Mountains climbing title at the Tour de France,
admitted last month taking drugs after having maintained his
innocence for two years. Virenque, 30, the most high-profile
defendant in the Tour de France doping trial, appeared along with
five former members of the Festina training staff, including Roussel,
43, and Voet, 54.



LAUSANNE, Switzerland (December 12, 2000 4:21 p.m. EST
http://www.sportserver.com) - The product at the core of doping
allegations against Lance Armstrong's team in the Tour de France was
banned by the International Olympic Committee on Tuesday.

Armstrong, meanwhile, said he might not defend his championship in next
year's Tour if charges of drug use continue.

The IOC medical commission said Actovegin, containing extracts of
calf's blood, was banned as blood doping.

"I think we need to be very precise that the position of the medical
commission is that this is a banned substance," panel chairman Prince
Alexandre de Merode said. "There may have been a bit of hesitation a
few months ago. This hesitation no longer exists today."

Actovegin has been at the center of controversy since October, when
French judicial authorities opened a preliminary investigation into
whether the U.S. Postal Service team used banned substances during the
2000 Tour. Armstrong, who came back from cancer, won the Tour for the
second straight year.

Armstrong and the team have repeatedly denied using banned drugs.

"Here's the bottom line to everyone: I'll start by saying that we are
completely innocent," Armstrong said on his personal Website on
Tuesday. "We run a very clean and professional team that has been
singled out due to our success.

"I will say that the substance on people's minds, Activ-o-something
(Actovegin) is new to me. Before this ordeal I had never heard of it,
nor had my teammates."

Armstrong said that the drugs and medical products found near the team
were simply tools to treat 25-50 people on the Tour de France over
three weeks.

"If something were to go wrong with any of them, he (the team doctor)
would be responsible for their well-being. That's why he would have
things like adrenaline, cortisone, scissors, stitches, etc.," Armstrong
said. "Some may be viewed as `performance enhancers' but they're not
used in that sense.

"And to so incorrectly call something a substitute for doping is
clueless and irresponsible. I can assure everyone we do everything in
the highest moral standard."

Armstrong also indicated he might skip the 2001 Tour if the charges of
drug use persist.

"I will say that if the current situation exists, then I will not ride
the Tour in 2001. Period," Armstrong said. "I'm not saying that to
`threaten' or `warn' anyone as I really don't think the French care
either way if I go."

The Paris prosecutor's office launched the investigation into the U.S.
Postal team after receiving an anonymous letter saying suspicious
behavior had been detected during the Tour. A TV crew noticed two men
dumping plastic bags that contained compresses, packaging from foreign
products and medicine, including Actovegin.

Actovegin, manufactured in Norway, contains deproteinized extracts of
calf's blood. Injected into the body, it improves the circulation of
oxygen in the blood in a manner similar to the banned drug EPO, or
erythropoetin, which builds endurance by boosting the production of
oxygen-rich red blood cells.

"It's advertised as enhancing the flow of oxygen to the brain," IOC
medical director Patrick Schamasch said. "And if it brings oxygen to
the brain, it can also bring oxygen to the other parts of the body."

De Merode said some Olympic teams brought Actovegin to the Sydney Games
this year with the approval of Australian customs, which did not
consider the product illegal.

Here's a summary of parts of the US Postal doping investigation story,
culled from my reading of the story on the L'Equipe web site at
http://www.lequipe.fr/Cyclisme/USPostal.html

--

Preliminary investigation by Paris magistrates court was started Oct 18.
Formal opening of judicial enquiry on Nov 22 after investigators
determined there was information to warrant proceeding. At present the
enquiry is an "information judiciaire contre X" - basically an
investigation of unknown parties.

Initial accusation came anonymously on Oct 18, addressed anonymously to
"procureur de la RÝpublique de Paris", Jean-Pierre Dintilhac.

Further information comes from a France 3 TV crew who had been
conducting "discreet" surveillance of US Postal during the most recent
TdF. They observed and filmed what producer HervÝ Brusini described as
"a strange ballet in the US Postal camp", after stage 18:

A car with German registration was parked in the area reserved for US
Postal. Two men who did not seem to be part of the usual team personnel
loaded several plastic bags into the car. Intrigued by this strange
activity, the journalists decided to start filming. The vehicle took to
the road at a brisk pace, went some way along the freeway, then took a
small local road, before stopping in front of a large container in a
public area, at a respectable distance from the hotel. The two unknowns
unloaded the bags and took off promptly. It remained only for the
journalists to recover the bags from the trash container: in it they
found compresses, bandages, and medicine bottles. Unable to establish
the products as dope, the France 3 reporters were not able to broadcast
their film.

Part of the contents were revealed by the "Canard enchaänÝ" in their
edition of Wed 8 Nov. The trash contained bottles of Actovegin, made by
the Norwegian lag Nycomed, and usually intended for the treatment of
arterial disease. Actovegin contains filtered calf's blood, and allows
improved oxygenation of blood with elevating the hematocrit. According
to Jean-Pierre de Mondenard, former TdF doctor, Actovegin "facilitates
the circulation of oxygen while avoiding the coagulation problems caused
by EPO." Although Actovegin is not explicitly prohibited by the UCI,
doping with blood products is.

According to HervÝ Brusini, the France 3 investigation is incomplete.
"We are at the stage of suspicions only, and one does not base an
investigative report on suspicion and doubt."

Police from the Paris narcotics squad must now determine whether the
famous bags really belonged to the US Postal team, something that Johan
Bruyneel vigorously denies. "I want first to make clear that if the
inquest has been going on since mid-October, no one from French justice
or the French police has contacted me for a statement. I have my own
thoughts about this affair and I am convinced that someone out is to
dirty our reputation. I remember that from the 2nd day of this year's
Tour, certain team directors where recipients of an anonymous letter
alleging doping among the US Postal team. They came to find me and give
me a friendly warning to watch out for these accusations, a baseless
lie. Under these conditions how can one give the least credit to this
new story today?"

Bruyneel, who said he was shocked by those who "only want to tarnish
Armstrong's reputation", disputed the accusations by suggesting that "it
is all being orchestrated by people whose job is to produce trash.
France 3 days they found the suspicious bags in the area of the US
Postal team, but that's very different from having found them in the US
Postal vehicles, or in the racers' room. No one can show that there is
doping in our team. For now I hold that all this rests only on vague
statements and that it is very serious to accuse the team of the winner
of the Tour de France on such slender grounds. There is a Belgium
proverb that sums it all up: The tallest trees are those that catch the
most wind. But Lance has seen other storms during his life."

US Postal spokesman Dan Osipow said: "It seems the enquiry was started
in mid October, but I heard about it today for the first time. We are
like everyone else. We learned about it from the media. We need to learn
more before making any pronouncements. But I can reaffirm that the US
Postal position on doping has not changed. It is zero tolerance."




All had begun with L ' sending D ' an anonymous mail with French
justice, following a survey carried out by journalists of France 3 at
the time of the Turn of France 2000. All finishes in quasi an anonymity
by a nonsuit returned at the end of August by the judge D ' instruction
Sophie-Helene Chateau, charged of the file. Since mid-June, since
François Franchi, head of the section of fight against non-financial
criminality organized with the parquet floor of Paris, had entrusted
that " juridically, nothing allows D ' to establish doping in this file
", L ' investigation lived these last hours. This withdrawal of case
thus does not constitute a surprise insofar as no setting in examination
N ' had been marked in this business, analyses N ' not having made it
possible D ' to identify doping products.

In addition, Lance Armstrong, quadruples victorious Turn of France,
always formally contradicted to have taken some doping product that it
is. Three weeks before the departure of the Turn 2002, L ' American,
wearied like never, its dissatisfaction with vehemence had expressed: "
Maintaining that is enough! They do not want to include/understand why
our samples are clean! "

At the end of August, "they" finally included/understood. What has L '
hor to like to L ' lawyer of the runner texan, Me George Kiejman, who
announced his "satisfaction" . " the decision was acquired since June.
There N ' ever was the least concrete suspicion against Lance Armstrong
", it explained " One could eternally have continued to seek something D
' imaginary. Justice functioned well in this business even if we would
have naturally wished that this decision be returned more quickly ", it
concluded.

Without surprise, the US formation Postal, by the voice of its spokesman
daN Osipow, also announced its immense satisfaction following the
decision returned by French justice " C ' is what we had said since the
beginning and we are obviously delighted. I do not think that Lance is
well-informed, because C ' is today a feastday in the United States, but
I am persuaded qu ' it will be relieved in L ' learning. "And D ' to add
not without making the blusterer. " We knew since the beginning that it
would be thus. C ' was ashamed. We collaborated with the authorities in
the measurement of our means. We did all that L ' one could in so much
qu ' equips to advance the things. Why did that take as many time? It is
necessary to ask them. "

Summary of the preceding episodes

Following the letter of request delivered at the beginning of the month
March 2001 by the judge D ' Parisian instruction Sophie-Helene Castle,
in load of L ' inquires open on November 22, 2000 by the parquet floor
of Paris, L ' UCI had announced officially, March 15, 2001, qu ' it gave
to French justice the samples and the codes D ' identification of the
blood taking away carried out before the departure of the Turn 2000 on
the runners of L ' equips US Postal. In addition, the samples D '
urinates frozen taken at the time of this same Turn, and seized by
French justice at the end of December 2000, were in progress D '
examination.

" If L ' US Postal announces his agreement to us, L ' UCI N ' has any
problem to place at the disposal the codes which allow D ' to identify
the runners of L ' equips ", the spokesman of L ' UCI had declared on
February 1, 2001. " the blood samples (*), which S ' do not compare to a
traditional control antidopage, are taken on the basis of
confidentiality ", it however had added.

Following this decision of L ' UCI, Mark Gorski, the manager of the
American formation, had reacted the evening even in an official
statement: " We N ' let us have any reason to hide anything which could
be discovered thanks to these samples of blood. "

Such an amount of better, because L ' authority international N ' had
not too much been long in joining the acts to the word, pressed however
by the letter of request delivered at the beginning of March by Château
judge for " infringement with the law relating to the prevention of L '
use of doping products, incentive with L ' use of doping products and
infringement with the legislation on the poisonous substances ".

March 15, 2001, L ' UCI had thus agreed to then give to French justice
the famous blood samples of the runners of L ' US Postal, preserved
jusqu ' in a laboratory of Lausanne.








Hardly the lawsuit Festina S ' it was completed in Lille, November 7,
2000, after eleven days of debates which put at the day the drifts D ' a
medium gangréné by doping, qu ' a new suspect business started to come
up as of the following day. This time, C ' was with the turn of L '
equips American US Postal with Armstrong Lance to be found in the storm.

Alerted by an anonymous denunciation addressed to the public prosecutor
of Paris Jean-Pierre Dintilhac, the parquet floor opened a preliminary
investigation on October 18, 2000, and L ' entrusted to the Drug squad
of the prefecture of police force of Paris.

The accused facts, which go up with the Turn of France 2000 , were
filmed by a team of the national drafting of France 3 , dispatched on
the Outer Loop to inquire discreetly and exclusively on L ' equips US
Postal following L ' incredible exploit (suspect?) of Armstrong Lance in
the rise towards Doors on July 10, 2000 ( 10th stage ).

The images were taken on July 18, 2000 after L ' Courchevel-Morzine
stage. Questioned by the newspaper the World , Herve Brusini, the
director of the national drafting of France 3 , evoked: " a strange
ballet in the wake of L ' equips US Postal. "

This 18 July, the journalists of France 3 locate, indeed, a big-engined
car registered in Germany, stationed in the reserved perimeter with L '
US Postal. Two men, who N ' do not belong apparently to the usual
personnel of the American formation, load several plastic bags in the
car. Intrigued by this strange horse-gear, the journalists decide to
film. The truck takes the road with sharp pace, borrowing a part D '
motorway, then a small secondary road, before S ' to stop close D ' a
large container on a public surface, remotely sizeable of L ' hotel.
The two unknown ones get rid then of the famous bags and set out again
also dry. There does not remain any more qu ' with the journalists to
recover the contents of the dustbin: compress, plates and packing of
drugs. Incompetents D ' to establish the doping character of these
products, the reporters of France 3 cannot diffuse their subject. The
anonymous letter of October 18 accelerates the things. The " stups "
start to inquire.

Part of the contents was revealed by Duck connected in its edition of
Wednesday November 8, 2000. The dustbin contained packing D ' Actovegin,
manufactured by the Norwegian laboratory Nycomed and usually intended to
treat the arterial insufficiencies.


Bulbs of calf blood!

Used in form D ' bulbs and container of the calf blood deproteneized and
filtered so D ' to eliminate D ' possible let us request and other
bacteria, L ' Actovegin would allow a better oxygenation of blood
without increasing the rate D ' hématocrite. Virtues rather close to
those of L ' EPO, even higher according to Jean-Pierre de Mondenard,
former doctor of the Turn of France, questioned by connected Duck : L '
Actovegin " facilitates the circulation of L ' oxygenates in blood while
avoiding the blood coagulation which L ' EPO causes. "

Even if L ' Actovegin N ' is not indexed on the list of the products
prohibited by L ' UCI, the process of blood doping (definite thus by the
texts: " administration with an athlete of blood, red globules,
artificial conveyors D ' oxygenates or of related blood products " ) L '
is formally .

Herve Brusini moderated the range of this information. " Our
investigation N ' is not finished. We N ' are qu ' at the stage of the
suspicions and one does not melt an investigation into suspicions and on
the doubt ", explained the owner of the drafting of France 3 .

According to Jacques de Ceaurriz, general manager of the national
Laboratory of tracking of doping (LNPP), L ' Actovegin is " a badly
defined product, which N ' is not marketed in France because C ' is an
extract D ' origin animal. C ' is a preparation without formal
identification of the active ingredient ". Proposed in particular in the
form of freezing, it is used in particular to improve blood circulation,
but is also acted as drugs of comfort for D ' other pathologies.


"a bottom of drawer"

" For me, C ' is a bottom of drawer, marketed especially in the
countries of L ' Is and in Asia, a preparation indeed starting from calf
serum, with the virtues is saying overall. I do not want to say that C '
is charlatanism but C ' is rather vast all the same ", still indicated
professor de Ceaurriz.

L ' inquires revival nevertheless the insinuations of certain witnesses
come to deposit at the time of the Festina lawsuit, in front of the
correctional court of Lille " In the rise of Hautacam , that is to say a
rise of collar in fine D ' stage, (Armstrong) developed more power with
top qu ' with the foot of the difficulty ", S ' astonished thus Antoine
Vayer, former trainer of Feasted.

A doctor of the Parisian sport, S ' expressing under cover D '
anonymity, posted on his side a mixture of skepticism and fatalism: "
All is possible. But L ' placébo effect of doping exists too. There are
many doctors who make pay very expensive with the runners products which
are not used for nothing ", estimated it.




Voet: "I know from an inside source that Armstrong uses more than a
dozen products on medical prescription." (just an IV-quote, nothing to
do with this investigation) Of course there's lots of stuff to be
found in teams' bins. And in Lance's particular case that might even
be more evident .


EPO activity is limited by shortages of iron in the body. Hence part of
the treatment includes iron suppliments.

I haven't seen the study nor a citation as such. However, liver and
pancreatic irregularities can be fairly accurately monitored since these
two organs dump a plethora of unique chemicals into the bloodstream that
are easily monitored via blood sampling.

One interesting study noted that IGF-1 (insulin growth factor 1) causes
natural EPO to be generated by the body in dose-dependant amounts. This
means that testing for rEPO may not be the best method of suppressing
doping. IGF-1 is another difficult to detect hormone and is active in
extremely small amounts in the bloodstream.

It is beginning to seem that the only way to keep drugs out of the
Peloton is a continuous monitoring to establish baseline metabolic
functions of each athlete on upper levels.

http://groups.google.com/groups?q=ig...UTF-8&selm=78-
sq0d%24q6q%241%40nnrp1.dejanews.com&rnum=7



ell, I suspect that systematic coping was in place long before this, in
both amateur and professional sports. In any endeavor where the stakes
are high, people will seek whatever edge they can. In the case of
Olympic teams, they are thinly disguised soldiers fighting a war for
their countries. Soldiers are notoriously used as guinea pigs for
experimentation, and the soldier-athletes that go to the Olympics are no
exception, IMHO.

However, the sophistication of the methods and materials underwent a
quantum leap- under the impetus of Dr. Conconi and Dr. Ferrari in
particular. Prior to this, the team doctor for Freddy Maertens and
Michel Pollentier (Velda-Flandria) was reportedly involved in the use of
drugs by both of those riders, and probably team mates as well. Jacques
Antequil is alleged to have used performance enhancing drugs (and
famously refused to comply with dope testing after breaking the Hour
Record), and a number of other famous riders including Bernard T



--
--------------------------
Posted via cyclingforums.com
http://www.cyclingforums.com