11 teammates testified in case against Lance Armstrong, USADA says

At left, in a July 19, 2009 file photo Lance Armstrong competes during the 15th stage of the Tour de France cycling race between Pontarlier, France and Verbier, Switzerland. At right, in an Aug. 18, 2004 file photo, Tyler Hamilton competes in the men's road individual time trial at the 2004 Olympic games on the outskirts of Athens. / AP Photo/File

The U.S. Anti-Doping Agency says 11 of Lance Armstrong's former teammates testified against him in its investigation of the cyclist, revealing "the most sophisticated, professionalized and successful doping program that sport has ever seen."

USADA will deliver its reasoned decision against Armstrong later Wednesday, a summary of the facts it used to hand him a lifetime suspension and erase his seven Tour de France titles.

In a news release previewing the decision, USADA CEO Travis Tygart said it would include more than 1,000 pages of evidence. He listed 11 of Armstrong's former teammates, including George Hincapie, Floyd Landis and Tyler Hamilton, as among those providing evidence that led to the sanction.

Armstrong spokesman Mark Fabiani declined immediate comment, referring to a letter the cyclist's attorney sent to USADA on Tuesday.

The letter accused USADA of acting as "prosecutor, judge, jury, appellate court and executioner" in issuing a "biased, one-sided and untested version of events." It also renewed Armstrong's assertion that witnesses, particularly riders, were offered deals of reduced punishments in exchange for their testimony against him.

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Lance Armstrong

Aware of the criticism it has faced from Armstrong and his legion of followers, Tygart insisted USADA handled this case under the same rules as any other.

"We focused solely on finding the truth without being influenced by celebrity or non-celebrity, threats, personal attacks or political pressure because that is what clean athletes deserve and demand," he said.

In delivering the report to the International Cycling Union (UCI), Tygart called for the federation to create a meaningful program to help clean up the sport.

Tygart said the evidence shows the code of silence that dominated cycling has been shattered.

He said evidence from 26 people, including 15 riders with knowledge of the U.S. Postal Service Team's doping activities, provided material for the report. It was with the USPS team that Armstrong won all but one of his Tour titles from 1999-2005.

Other cyclists named in the news release were Frankie Andreu, Michael Barry, Tom Danielson, Levi Leipheimer, Stephen Swart, Christian Vande Velde, Jonathan Vaughters and David Zabriskie.

In the letter to USADA attorneys, Armstrong's attorney dismissed any evidence provided by Landis and Hamilton, calling them "serial perjurers and have told diametrically contradictory stories under oath."

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Former teammate: I saw Lance Armstrong doping

Last year, Hamilton told "60 Minutes" that Armstrong used EPO, a drug that boosted endurance by increasing the amount of red blood cells in his body, to win the 1999 Tour de France, the race he won an astonishing seven times.

"I saw [EPO] in his refrigerator...I saw him inject it more than one time like we all did, like I did many, many times," Hamilton said.

Hincapie's role in the investigation could be more damaging, as he was one of Armstrong's closest and most loyal teammates through the years.

"Two years ago, I was approached by U.S. federal investigators, and more recently by USADA, and asked to tell of my personal experience in these matters," the cyclist said in a statement published shortly after USADA's release. "I would have been much more comfortable talking only about myself, but understood that I was obligated to tell the truth about everything I knew. So that is what I did."

Tygart said all the facts in the Armstrong case and the cases of six other riders targeted in USADA's investigation would be made available on the agency's website later Wednesday.

Two other players in the Postal team's circle, Dr. Michele Ferrari and Dr. Garcia del Moral, also received lifetime bans as part of the case.

Three other members of the USPS team will take their cases to arbitration. They are team director Johan Bruyneel, team doctor Pedro Celaya and team trainer Jose "Pepe" Marti.

Armstrong chose not to pursue the case and instead accepted the sanction, though he has persistently argued that the USADA system was rigged against him, calling the agency's effort a "witch hunt" that used special rules it doesn't follow in all its other cases.

The UCI has asked for details of the case before it decides whether to sign off on the sanctions. The federation has 21 days to appeal the case to the Court of Arbitration for Sport.

USADA has said it doesn't need UCI's approval and Armstrong's penalties already are in place.

The report also will go to the World Anti-Doping Agency, which also has the right to appeal, but so far has supported USADA's position in the Armstrong case.

[USSAmerikan]

All of the 11 were made to testify against the threat of pulling their licences if they did not cooperate and give them the information they were looking for. Of course they would have chirped and made up anything to get these goons off their case.

According to British paper The Guardian:
"When Armstrong's former team-mate Floyd Landis first accused the seven-times Tour de France winner in 2010, McQuaid said the allegations were "nothing new" and sued Landis over his claims of a UCI cover-up.

The UCI won its case against Landis last month, with the former rider forced to pay former UCI President McQuaid and the governing body's honorary president, Hein Verbruggen, damages and promise not to repeat allegations against them.

And when another former team-'cmate, Tyler Hamilton, publicly accused Armstrong of doping in a long-form interview for 60 Minutes in the US in 2011, Verbruggen said: "That's impossible, because there is nothing. I repeat again: Lance Armstrong has never used doping. Never, never, never."

[FormerUSMCSergeant]

The letter accused USADA of acting as "prosecutor, judge, jury, appellate court and executioner" in issuing a "biased, one-sided and untested version of events."
--
11 swore to it.
Not 1,2 or even 3, but 11.
Says a lot....

[MrsHippy]

Hey Lance,

"Liar Liar Pants on Fire." You should be so proud!

[buckn]

So let me get this straight. You pass 500 - 600 scientific drug tests and yet you convict Lance Armstrong on "testimony" from jealous peers and accept that as proof????***???

[maico61]

Armstrong DID fail drugs tests during his career. You can read the judgement here:

http://www.scribd.com/doc/109619079/Reasoned-Decision

[Yirmin]

Unless the USADA releases EVERY document and transcripts of EVERY communication they had with all the witnesses the release of 1,000 pages of documents is meaningless. You need to provide ALL the evidence not just hand picked testimony that supports your case. IF I threatened a random person on the street with the death penalty unless he said you murdered someone and a promise of no punishment if went along with it... what would that person do. The evidence wouldn't hold up in court or Armstrong would have been indited and charged prosecuted like Mark McQuire... the reason he wasn't is that the evidence wouldn't stand up to scrutiny.

[Canuck42]

Yeah, right!!!

[gunndee3]

I would acquit Lance Armstrong based on the fact that he never tested positive in an actual race's drug test. Hearsay testimony would not supplant drug test results that were negative at the time of his races for me. If frozen samples are being tested now that indicate he was doping with today's advanced doping detection tools, I still would not find him guilty of doping, because it's years after the fact. How could you ensure frozen samples had not been tainted. Moreover, if you're going to retest all of his frozen samples, then why test everyone else's in perpetuity. From a cost standpoint, the ends don't justify the means here, which confirms for me that this is indeed a witchhunt.

[nazcap]

Lance finally meets Karma.

[nomorelibs]

Hardly, he still reaped the benefits and stole the glory from others that followed the rules. He should disgust everyone.

[kschwink]

Lance still competes in other athletic events, and he's kickin' ass! Against athletes half his age!

[kschwink]

The USADA is a joke! The drug testing is the baseline in cycling events. If you pass the testing, you're good to go! Period. There's nothing else to say! This is nothing more than a political witch hunt! The other athletes that testified against Lance are nothing but sore losers, and they, and the USADA officials should be ashamed of themselves!