Next thing you know, hair cuts and shaving will be on the list of banned substances, along with napkins and cutlery. Please list more jokes, in the comments box, below.
Posted Apr. 10, 2009
Lance Armstrong said Friday that French anti-doping authorities have been working to prevent him from racing in this year’s Tour de France.
Armstrong, who says he has submitted to 24 drug tests since his return to professional racing in September, said the French anti-doping body (AFLD) appears poised to keep him from riding the race he won seven times between 1999 and 2005.
The AFLD announced on Thursday that it was pursuing disciplinary action against the 37-year-old Armstrong for violating the rules governing out-of-competition testing. Armstrong, in a video message released Friday, said that the charges are baseless and reflective of the agency’s broader agenda.
“I suspect this will escalate, and we’ll see even more antics out of the AFLD in the near future,” Armstrong said. “And there’s a very high likelihood that they’d prohibit me from riding in the Tour. And that’s too bad, the Tour is something that I love dearly, something I wanted to ride in, something I wanted to be competitive in, either go for a victory or help Alberto (Contador) get a victory, or help Levi (Leipheimer) get a victory.”
The AFLD's dispute with Armstrong relates to an out-of-competition test on March 17, when the Astana rider refused to allow an AFLD testing officer into his home until his identity was verified. Applicable doping protocols require that an athlete remain in the presence of a tester until samples are provided. Armstrong, however, left to take a shower while team manager Johan Bruyneel verified the tester’s identity with the UCI.
Armstrong said he had reason to be skeptical when he found the testing official waiting at his home.
“A few weeks back, before the crash, I came back from training to a home I was staying at in southern France,” he recalled. “There was a man standing there who said ‘I came to drug test you, and I need your blood, your urine and your hair.’ And I thought it was odd in that he was alone, he’d been waiting outside the house.
“In 20 years of doing this I’d never seen a drug tester come alone,” he noted. “Normally they are always accompanied by somebody as a witness, or another source. He was alone, and it seemed suspicious, and of course we were in France, so you never know what kind of situation you might get into there.”
The AFLD raised objections to Armstrong’s decision to leave the official before confirming his identity, although Armstrong says no objections were raised at the time.
“When it came time to finish the control and he filled out the report and said there’s a space in the papers where he can sign whether or not anything was abnormal, if he had any comments or anything he wanted to remark, his remarks were no, nothing was abnormal,” Armstrong asserted.
The AFLD case could result in Armstrong being barred from the Tour, an event he sees as a key element of his return to the sport.
“The comeback has been important to me for two main reasons,” Armstrong said. “Obviously I have a passion for cycling, still, but more importantly I have a passion for the global fight against cancer. It started in Australia, it went to California, it went to Mexico, I’m taking it to Italy, and certainly we wanted to tell that story in France. But if we can’t do that, we can’t do that, and that’s really their call. It’s their event, their country and their rules, so we have to play by those.”
Armstrong said that he is recovering from a broken collarbone suffered last month in the opening stage of Spain’s Vuelta a Castilla y León. He underwent surgery two days after the accident and said that he expects to recover in time for the Giro d’Italia, which begins on May 9.
“Everything seems to be good,” he said. “Stitches are gone and the scar has healed nicely. The actual collarbone and plate feel solid. I go out on the bike and ride, just like I did before. I don’t want to fall on it again right now, but I think it’s pretty solid, and I think it’s going to be fine for the Tour of Italy.”
