Federals Investigating Lance Armstrong
Lance Armstrong
Federal prosecutors investigating cheating in professional cycling have subpoenaed documents from a 2004 case in which a Texas company tried to prove Lance Armstrong used performance enhancing drugs.
Jeffrey Tillotson, the attorney who handled the case for Dallas-based SCA Promotions Inc, said that his office will send the documents to federal prosecutors in Los Angeles.
The records include depositions from former Tour de France winner Greg LeMond, former Armstrong teammate Frankie Andreu and his wife, and testimony from Armstrong and his business associates. The Wall Street Journal first reported the subpoena.
Armstrong has not received any subpoenas or official requests from federal investigators, according to his attorney, Bryan D. Daly, a criminal defense lawyer and former federal prosecutor based in Los Angeles.
“Truthfully, I don’t have any idea how Lance Armstrong fits into this whole thing,” Daly said. “Lance Armstrong doesn’t want to be stuck in the middle of a celebrity investigation.”
Armstrong and SCA went to arbitration after the company withheld a US$5 million performance bonus it owed Armstrong for his 2004 Tour de France win. SCA had cited published allegations Armstrong was doping, which he denied.
The cyclist never has failed a drug test and has strongly denied all allegations he participated in doping.
The 2004 case ended with SCA paying Armstrong US$7.5 million, covering the original contract plus attorneys fees and interest. Sean Breen, one of Armstrong’s attorneys in the SCA case, said most of the case testimony already had been leaked in recent years.
“There’s nothing in (the subpoenaed documents) that hasn’t been released or would support any contention he was doping or cheated,” Breen said.
Federal prosecutors’ investigation was spurred by more recent accusations from Floyd Landis, Armstrong’s former teammate on the US Postal team. Armstrong has denied the allegations and questioned Landis’ credibility.
Armstrong won the Tour de France a record seven times from 1999-2005, an era that started after his recovery from testicular cancer that had spread to his lungs and brain.
The SCA case involved three weeks of testimony from dozens of witnesses. Betsy Andreu claimed that days after Armstrong underwent brain surgery in 1996, he told a doctor he used the blood-boosting hormone EPO and other drugs. Frankie Andreu also gave similar testimony.
Armstrong denied those claims and his lawyer released an affidavit from the doctor who led his chemotherapy treatments saying there is no medical record of any such admission.
“I would have recorded such a confession as a matter of form, as indeed, would have my colleagues,” Dr Craig Nichols said. “None was recorded.”
Other allegations in the case included LeMond saying Armstrong threatened his life, a charge Armstrong dismissed as “ridiculous.” America’s top two cyclists have feuded for years.
Federal investigators in Los Angeles also have sought records from several Armstrong associates, including LeMond and former teammate Tyler Hamilton.
LeMond attorney Mark Handfelt said in an e-mail to The Associated Press that the request to his client was only for documents, not testimony. Hamilton’s attorney, Chris Manderson, confirmed a subpoena had been issued to his client, but declined to discuss the details.
“Tyler would have preferred to stay out of this,” Manderson said. “He wants to concentrate on his training business and his own battle with depression.”
Courtesy of stuff.co.nz
HAVE YOUR SAY: Are they going about this in the wrong way?
Coulthard: Ban On Team Orders Should Be Scrapped
Ferrari
Formula One is a team sport. There, I said it. It is not a popular view but it is the truth. And because it is a team sport, the frankly ludicrous ban on team orders that everyone is getting so worked up about should be scrapped.
Now just hear me out. I know that what we saw at Hockenheim, when Felipe Massa was ordered aside for Fernando Alonso, was unpalatable to many fans but for goodness sake, wake up and smell the coffee.
Team orders happen in F1. They always have and they always will. Just because Ferrari were ham-fisted in breaking the rules, does it make their transgression any worse? I cannot believe some of the hypocrisy we’ve heard in the past couple of days.
The only way to stop team orders would be to race with one car. As long as there are two (and some teams want three — how difficult would it be then to control team orders?) the rule is unenforceable.
Team principals should be allowed to do the best they can for their team, for their employees, for their owners. That is what they always used to do. At some point during the past 60 years we seem to have lost sight of that fact.
The public furore is based on a fundamental misunderstanding, which is that Formula One is about the individual.
When I raced I lost sight of that as much as anyone else. Like every driver, I was racing for myself as well as the team. Unfortunately I was asked to make way for Mika Hakkinen at Jerez in 1997 and Melbourne a year later. Both times I acquiesced; both times reluctantly.
As I have written in previous columns, I have often wondered what would have happened if I hadn’t been so compliant. Perhaps I would have won more respect? Perhaps I would have been world champion? Perhaps I would have been fired? These are the kind of decisions a driver must weigh up.
No doubt Massa is grappling with such questions. The most damaging aspect of Sunday’s race is what it could do to his reputation. People will see him now as a ‘yes man’ who bends to the will of the company. And maybe they are right. Team player or stooge? The line is thin.
But it doesn’t change the underlying truth. My old team boss, Frank Williams, used to make decisions that would anger us drivers but when we complained about them he would say it was not about us, it was about the 700 employees in the team. We were just two paid drivers. He was right.
Ah, people will say, if it is a team sport then why is the drivers’ title the holy grail? You didn’t see Ferrari celebrate the constructors’ crown in 2008 after Lewis Hamilton pipped Massa to the drivers’ title.
That’s true. Sponsors need stars so teams will try to win that crown above all. That is the ultimate goal. It is tough luck for one of the two drivers but only one of them can win the thing.
Like the Tour de France, which is all about getting the team leader across the line first. Like a football team, who can sometimes sacrifice a player to man-mark a member of the opposition in order to give his striker room to score.
Like any team sport, in fact, the manager must be free to decide how best to manage his team. The players involved are free to obey or disobey — often the best sportsmen are not team players — but they do so at their own risk.
That is all part of the delicate and unique team-driver relationship.
The only possible drawback I can see to repealing the team orders rule is the encouragement it might give to the illegal gambling industry.
But it remains the only way of stopping charades such as the one we saw.
Courtesy of David Coulthard and The Telegraph
What A True Tour De France Rivalry Needs
Andy Schleck and Albert Contador
After all the smiles and handshakes, it was surprising that Alberto Contador and Andy Schleck didn’t blow kisses to each other as they stood on the podium in Paris yesterday evening.
Since their battle over the three weeks of the 2010 Tour concluded with a repeat of the previous year’s result, and it seems more than likely that there will be more to come next year, there needs to be something more than sun-kissed displays of magnanimous sporting behaviour if this historic race is to maintain its vibrancy.
A “clean” Tour in terms of dope tests is one thing (although we must wait for a month or two before being entirely comfortable about that assertion). Extending it to the competition between the riders is quite another.
“What we’ve seen between the two favourites is inconceivable,” the two-times winner Laurent Fignon, who knows a thing or two about bitter personal rivalries, said on the eve of the final stage.
“Cycling isn’t a friendly game. The competition should be pitiless. When you’re rivals, you can’t love each other. In fact you mustn’t love each other.”
During the winner’s press conference, which traditionally takes place the night before the ride into Paris, Contador suddenly put Schleck in his place. He started silkily enough.
“Andy is a great rider,” he said. “I’ve spent a lot of time with him. I know the way he works and I think he’s going to be a major rival for a long time. He’s very young, and I’m still very young, and I’m sure he’s going to keep improving.” Then he inserted the stiletto. “He was at the same level this year. I wasn’t. We’ll see what happens in the future.”
Contador said that he had been taking antibiotics before the Tour started and that he was in a bad way the night before Saturday’s 52km time trial, in which he performed way below the standard he exhibited in winning the equivalent stage in Annecy last year, when he beat even Fabian Cancellara over a 40km course.
If the subtext of Contador’s remarks is to be taken seriously, Schleck’s success in closing the margin between them from 4min 11sec in 2009 to 39sec this year is no more than an illusion, and not to be taken as an indication that the Luxembourg rider is on the brink of overhauling the Spaniard.
Contador is probably right, and the key to this particular ascendancy is surely Schleck’s inability to go off on long-range attacks in the high mountains. His repeated short bursts again had no lasting impact, and he will have to expand his range of weaponry if he hopes to do anything other than wait for Contador to retire before claiming his first yellow jersey in Paris. He has shown signs of raising his game in the time trials, so there may be hope.
Should he fail to take the final step, the world will be looking for other young contenders as the generation of Carlos Sastre, Ivan Basso, Cadel Evans and Bradley Wiggins starts to fade away.
Sky’s Edvald Boasson Hagen is an obvious candidate, although the 23-year-old Norwegian all-rounder, the winner of last year’s Tour of Britain, was badly hampered by bronchitis in his first Tour de France, finishing two consecutive mountain stages alongside the sprinters in the grupetto.
Others include the riders in fifth, sixth and seventh places in this year’s final general classification: Jurgen Van den Broek, Omega Pharma-Lotto’s 27-year-old Belgian; Robert Gesink, Rabobank’s 24-year-old Dutchman, and Ryder Hesjedal of Garmin-Transitions, who is a little older at 30 but did well in his third Tour after taking over the leadership following Christian Vande Velde’s withdrawal.
Liquigas’s Roman Kreuziger, the 24-year-old from the Czech Republic, finished in a good ninth place while Tony Martin, the 25-year-old German with HTC-Columbia, will have learned from the problems encountered during his second Tour.
Will Ben Swift or Peter Kennaugh emerge from the ranks of Team Sky’s junior ranks with the qualities to challenge one day for the overall win? On their young shoulders, at the moment, rests the burden of Dave Brailsford’s much-publicised intention to put a British rider on the top step of the podium.
“He said he wanted to do it within five years,” his rival Jonathan Vaughters, the Garmin team principal, said at the weekend. “OK. Now he’s got four.”
Even when the rivalries are coated with honey, the world of the Tour de France is a harsh one. That’s the way it was meant to be, and anything else would be an insult to those who fought the grim battles of yesteryear.
Courtesy of The Guardian
Armstrong Breached Tour Clothing Regulations
Johan Brunyeel, Lance Armstrong and Andreas Kloden of team Radioshack stand on the podium to receive the Team Classification award.
Lance Armstrong and his team RadioShack will face disciplinary proceedings for breaching riders’ clothing regulations during the Tour de France, the International Cycling Union (UCI) has revealed.
The American, who was diagnosed with cancer before going on to win seven successive Tours from 1999-2005 and returning to the sport in 2009, was riding the famous race for the last time and attempted to wear a black Livestrong shirt instead of his team’s red and grey strip during the final day.
The 38-year-old was halted from publicising his Livestrong foundation by wearing the new jerseys with the number 28 – a reference to the estimated 28 million people living with cancer – which delayed the start of the race, though he did wear it on the podium at the end.
“RadioShack’s incorrect behaviour led to a 20-minute delay to the start of the final stage, which could have disrupted the televised coverage of the race, placing the Commissaires under the obligation to impose a fine on each rider and the team managers,” the statement read.
“The UCI regrets that an initiative for a cause as worthy as the fight against cancer was not co-ordinated beforehand with the Commissaires and organisers of the event. This could have been done whilst remaining within the rules.”
RadioShack’s Belgian boss Johan Bruyneel, a former rider, was unhappy about the decision and is also in trouble with the UCI for the following comments posted on his Twitter site: “To be a race commissaire you don’t need brains, but only know the rules.”
“The UCI also deplores the declarations made by Mr Johan Bruyneel who gravely offended all the Commissaires working in cycling. His remarks are utterly unacceptable, and Mr Bruyneel will be called upon to answer for his comments before the UCI Disciplinary Commission,” the statement added.
The UCI added that any fines levied as a result of this matter would be donated to the LSC (Ligue suisse contre le cancer – Swiss Cancer League).
Courtesy of stuff.co.nz
Unwritten Sports Rules
Unwritten sports rules.
The problem with the unwritten rules of sport is that no one has bothered to write them down. Which is how you end up with the tit-for-tat squabble that beset the Tour de France earlier this week.
On the 15th stage, leader Andy Schleck’s chain came adrift. Which would seem to leave him up the Pyrenees without a pushbike.
Except there is an unwritten rule which, if written, would read: Do not attack a race leader who has suffered misfortune beyond his control such as a crash or mechanical problem. If this ”rule” panders to the prejudices of those who believe there is a bit too much pleasant ambling through the French countryside in Le Tour, its sentiment underpins the honour and integrity of the race.
Which is why Contador was booed as he put on the yellow jersey despite claiming he was unaware of Schleck’s plight; why Schleck declared ”my stomach is full of anger” and why the pair might end up settling the matter with bicycle pumps at 20 paces. So, to avoid further confusion, here are some of the unwritten rules of sport.
Cricket
Many of the game’s unwritten rules – don’t bowl bouncers to tailenders, don’t run two on a lame fielder’s arm and even not Mankading – were expunged during the reigns of the ruthless West Indies and Australian teams. Don’t run out an injured batsmen who is out of his crease, don’t take an overthrow if the ball hits a batsman and don’t take your mum’s weight-loss pills.
Football
Always kick the ball out when an opposition player is injured and it will be returned once he is on his feet. This almost caused confusion during the World Cup when the Dutch kicked the ball back to the Spanish goalkeeper, only for the Jabulani to swing wildly and almost go into the top corner of the net. If it had, would the Dutch have been obliged to concede an uncontested goal to square things up? It is unwritten.
Tennis
Always concede the point if you have hit the ball on the double bounce – even if the umpire doesn’t call it. You are also expected to wave a hand in faux-apology if you win a point on a let-cord.
Golf
The sport has long-winded guidelines about etiquette, but some basic rules remain unwritten – don’t walk on your opponent’s putting line or make a noise when he is about to play. Seve Ballesteros was notorious for jingling coins in his pocket or ripping the velcro strip on his glove on an opponent’s backswing, causing considerable tension during Ryder Cup matches. A recent update: don’t simultaneously date more than three porn stars or cocktail waitresses.
Rugby League
The unwritten Gorden Tallis Rule: You can throw as many punches as you like while standing toe to toe with an opponent. The unwritten Jarryd Hayne Rule: A headbutt is a love tap before a State of Origin match.
AFL
It used to go without saying that you should not attack an injured player. Then a pack of Brisbane Lions set upon St Kilda’s ailing Nick Riewoldt. So that law is now written – which is partly why the Saints’ Steve Baker recently copped a seven-match ban after conducting an unofficial fitness test on Geelong forward Steven Johnson’s broken hand.
Basketball
In a tradition at odds with the trash-talking stereotype, Americans do not like humiliating opponents by ”running up the score”. Last year, Micah Grimes, coach of Covenant School in Dallas, was sacked after his girls’ team beat Dallas Academy 100-0. Dominant teams are expected to ”dribble out the clock” – with commentators then forced to do likewise.
Courtesy of stuff.co.nz
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