It's not over until it's over...

Yesterdays announcement that USADA was banning Lance Armstrong from future competition and opening the door to the stripping of him of his seven Tour titles has many potential ramifications.

For those that have not seen the original leaked letter announcing the action a link is found on the cylingtips blog at : http://www.cyclingtips.com.au/2012/06/what-a-mess/

Jim however has his usual perspicacious view on events which I thought was worth sharing:


This looks very serious for Lance. Up until page 11 I thought
the evidence was pretty Ho Hum ie only of the variety of what various riders
have said but no hard evidence. The real risk to Armstrong will be
irrefutable evidence which seems to be the case with retro testing of
samples suggesting EPO and then more recently 2009-10 evidence of blood
doping referenced on page 11 para 3 and 4.

We know from the detailed report provided earlier this year by Cycling Rob
regarding the blood analysis showing that Contador was blood doping and this
was how the Clerbuterol got in his system that they can detect blood doping
now. This would suggest that the above comment “this data is fully
consistent with blood manipulation…” probably has a heap of science behind
it.

Hard to comprehend what it means for Pro Cycling if/when the case is
confirmed. It probably means that whole decade becomes one big asterix *

The performances now seem more human and not as mercurial. So hopefully that
means cleaner. Maybe that is why some winners from previous years (Schleck
brothers, Phillippe Gilbert) have dropped away this year?

Anyway accessing that letter is obviously controversial. As in page 13 they
talk about the review process and redacting names (to presumably enable the
review board to make an impartial ruling on the evidence to be presented).
Well the presence of this letter in the public domain means that any
supposed anonymity has been blown out of the water. So hopefully that does
not comprise the process and provide grounds for it to be thrown out on a
technicality.

Anyway we will wait and see. Certainly page 4 referencing Dr Ferrari’s
testosterone-olive oil mixture puts a whole new perspective on the
expression the good oil!