After facing charge after charge from Floyd Landis and Tyler Hamilton, the investigation of Lance Armstrong by the Feds was dismissed without charges. Lance’s former teammates accused Lance of masterminding a doping campaign for the U.S. Postal Service team that he captained. Apparently the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency, the Olympics sanctioned organization that regulates the usage of performance enhancing drugs (PEDs) by athletes, will continue its own investigation.
Lance is probably the most tested athlete in the world, yet rumors persisted that he secretly doped himself, and apparently other teammates. He has fought these charges for more than ten years. “60 Minutes” reported that former his trusted former teammate George Hincapie had testified to the grand jury that Armstrong had used performance enhancing drugs. Franie Andreu, another former teammate, also was called to testify. Andreu’s wife is one of Lance’s main detractors. She said regarding the dismissal, “This is what happens when you have a lot of money and you can buy attorneys who have people in high places in the Department of Justice.”
I am a longtime Lance fan, have met him several times, including once out on the road here in Santa Barbara, and I believe he is innocent. That is not to say that I have no doubts about him, but if he has doped, then he must have some super-secret concoction of drugs that not only enhance performance, but are completely undetectable by any known means. I doubt that such drugs exist. If you read about Lance and his life, you know that he was tested when he was racing at any time, any place, on a regular, random basis. In addition, he was tested during and after each finish of his winning stages and races.
There was an instance when the drug testing authorities thought they had something on him, but the handling of the samples and the testing methods were so botched by the lab that the “results” were thrown away. It is no secret that the cycling establishment (French dominated) has been out to get him for years. French fans used to jeer him as he raced by, yelling, “Dopez, dopez!” It wasn’t until his fifth historic Tour de France win (2003; I was there) that he began to win their hearts after his suffering on that Tour. Yes, they like to see suffering and then, recovery and domination of the course. Many people do not wish to admit Lance was as good was he was.
I will say that I have no respect for Landis or Hamilton. They both doped, lied about it, admitted it, and then had their Tour wins (Landis) and stage wins (Hamilton) voided. Landis is a sad case of a bitter, lost man with little future. His situation is very similar to Pantani. Both Hamilton and Landis took donations from a sympathetic public while they contested the charges against them that they later admitted. I will fess up and admit I sent a donation to Hamilton.
Thus most of the case rested on the word of these two liars. Had the prosecutor (André Birotte Jr.) had sufficient evidence from other team members and officials who ‘knew what was going on’, as Landis claimed, he would have had a case and would have won fame and fortune by taking Lance down, a great incentive for any prosecutor.
Lance did hire a hire powered defense team and fought with all his might using the fortune he had made from his years of being a celebrity. But so what. Every major celebrity does the same thing. And many rich athletes are still nailed. Barry Bonds was just lucky. In Lance’s case the prosecutor had no case. You must believe that.
As an aside, one must ask why do the Feds have any role in regulating what athletes put into their bodies? Athletics is a private enterprise and it is up to the promoters to police their constituent athletes, not government. They should never make any violation of such private rules a crime. Sports, that human past time, do not rise to the level of State concern. If athletes wish to use PEDs, let the leagues and sports organizations deal with it. Butt out, Feds.
Congratulations to Lance. Too bad it’s not over. It will probably never be over for him.
These cases should remain strictly a civil matter and not a criminal one…
The case against Gary “US” Bonds was political theater; a showcase trial by a government unit…
As reported on CNN by Jeffery Toobin, these types of criminal charges generally wind up dismissed or settled with minor pleas…
More needless laws, more people with criminal charges or convictions, more jails, more probation officials, more government…
Last year alone, the USA add more than 41,ooo new laws…
We need a app for that!
Not an expert but my understanding is that a dismissal BEFORE the indictment means that whatever “evidence” or testimony presented to the grand jury must have been exceedingly thin. A grand jury indictment would be as simple as even just a “suggestion” of wrong doing would bring about a criminal case. The fact it didn’t even get out of grand jury leads me to believe the prosecutors thought there wasn’t a chance in hell they could get any kind of conviction. Must have gone something like:
Did you see it? Not me personally but I know someone who did.
Will they testify and get a $1MM book deal for it? No
Can you point out any of the support staff… bus drivers, mechanics, or the 100 people in the Postal entourage who will testify even though they couldn’t have been making more than 40k a year? No
How about a single teammate who left voluntarily because they thought there was something unethical? None
How about an old used testo patch handed to you by Johan? Don’t have that right now.
How about a single text, email, paper, note, call about him organizing said multi-million dollar doping scheme. No, I guess he was too careful for that. We can catch Bin Laden but Lance was too well organized for that.
Do you have the needle? No
Do you have pictures of the blood bags on your phone which would be worth millions? No
France, do you have a reasonable suspicious test we can see? No
How many times was he tested here and abroad with millions and millions of dollars on the line to OTHER athletes if he could be found doped? 500… he tricked them all.
How much would he have lost had he failed a single test? Everything
Are you sure? Do you have Nike’s contract? Yes, right here that clearly states if he fails a test they revoke the dump truck of money he gets every year.
Would it then be reasonable to assume that it would make more sense to play clean and win 1 race a year than risk being regulated to loserdom… with the best doctors, equipment, financing, teammates, trainers on the planet?
No, he must have doped cuz others did.
Hey jealous teammate, how hard did he train? Harder than any one in history and rode me into the ground every season as domestique and bitched the entire time I wasn’t trying hard enough. I had to dope to keep up.
So what do we have here… some people who don’t like him who don’t have anything to say or offer other than, “we’ll I’m sure he did, everyone else did.”
Dismissed.
Nice response! Exceedingly thin stuff. Just a couple of angry ex’s drumming up trouble.
Excellent!!
Maybe it happened in a alternate universe. Right?
Gross is insignificant. Net is what brings in competition, even in SB.
Hi Jeff,
I’m a regular reader of your blog as well as an avid cyclist. Since you’re a Lance fan and presumably an annual follower of the TdF, I figured you’d find this remotely interesting.
http://community.amstat.org/AMSTAT/Blogs/BlogViewer/?BlogKey=5ea4bd3a-6221-4958-be14-4961a9b7a641
Interesting piece. Will 156 riders finish out of 198 (79%)? Last year there were 167 finishers, so that’s 84%.