Public confessions

Several people involved in the USADA investigation against Lance Armstrong are now offering public apologies for their use of performance enhancing drugs from the late 90s to mid-aughts.

USADA released their 200 page Reasoned Decision today, along with dozens of affidavits and other supporting documents in their investigation of systemic doping in professional cycling. The documents include a detailed chronology of Armstrong’s use of performance enhancing drugs from 1998 to 2005, how Armstrong’s support staff participated directly in the doping, and how the US Postal Service team avoided positive drug tests during this era.

I’m going through the entire set of documents now and hope to post updates here, but I’m telling you, the evidence is compelling and matches with everything Tyler Hamilton wrote in his recent book. People like Filippo Simeoni, Paul Kimmage, Betsy Andreu and Greg Lemond, who were publicly vilified with their attempts to publicize cycling’s problem with doping, can feel some vindication.

Supporting documents include affidavits from Frankie Andreu, Michael Barry, Leonardo Bertagnolli, Volodymyr Bileka, Tom Danielson, Tyler Hamilton, George Hincapie, Jörg Jaksche, Floyd Landis, Levi Leipheimer, Filippo Simeoni, Christian Van de Velde, Jonathan Vaughters, and David Zabriskie.

5 Comments

  1. Does Lionel Hutz from “The Simpsons” work for the USADA?
    Judge: Mr. Hutz we’ve been in here for four hours.
    Do you have any evidence at all?

    Hutz: Well, Your Honor. We’ve plenty of hearsay and
    conjecture. Those are kinds of evidence.

  2. …mr power, i think you need to do some serious reading…
    …as fritzter suggests, the evidence is compelling & if you personally wish to consider as hearsay, the testimony of 11 former teammates who were involved in the practice of doping alongside mr armstrong, plus that of another 15 people that were peripherally involved, then why not jump straight ahead to the e-mails & financial statements that mr tygart & his cronies unearthed…
    …it’s not a cartoon or conjecture & while i’m not an expert, it appears to be extremely factual…

  3. …@ neverstp…dave z’s involvement, something he fully admits to, was marginal at best…
    …he reveals that his father had been addicted to “recreational” drugs & because cycling was initially his escape from that kind of home life, he had a strongly emotional reaction to the reality of using performance enhancing substances whilst a member of a top pro team…
    …he “used”, which left him cynical but he seems to have greatly limited himself…
    …might even somewhat explain his oddball sense of humor…

  4. I’m halfway through the report, and am impressed with it’s thoroughness, attention to detail and efforts to provide multiple sources for it’s claims. It is also important to note the comment at the beginning of the document that it is necessarily limited in what evidence it contains – there was more to present, but Armstrong chose not to go to arbitration, so they published this, instead. After reading what I have read so far, I suspect it would have been ugly if it had gone to a public hearing.

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