June 13, 2012: USADA levels doping charges against Armstrong, five others
The French anti-doping agency says it won’t open a case against Lance Armstrong for leaving a doping control officer outside his house in France while he took a shower back in March.
The agency’s decision means Armstrong is free to race for an unprecedented eighth win at the 2009 Tour de France, which begins July 4.
Armstrong is currently recovering from a collarbone break he suffered in a bicycle race in Spain back on March 23rd. He’s training for the 2009 Giro d’Italia, a three-week bike race around Italy in which he has never participated.
One and only Juan
That wasn’t the only interesting news from Armstrong at Twitter on Friday.
He tried to post a couple of videos of his latest training ride, but they came back with an error message that included Armstrong’s private email account jp@livestrong.org.
When he started getting inundated with emails from fans, he quizzed them about what the “JP” stood for. He has done this before with the code numbers “1274” and “27.5” on his racing bike (1274 is days without a pro race and 27.5 is how many million people worldwide died of cancer in that time).
Later, Armstrong revealed JP stood for Juan Pelota, which is the name of the coffee shop in Armstrong’s Mellow Johnny’s bike shop in Austin. It’s a nom secret he uses to register clandestinely in hotels.
The name refers to the surgery Armstrong had for testicular cancer when one of his testes was removed. Pelota is Spanish for ball. Juan Pelota. Get it?
Showergate
The incident with the doping control officer occurred after Armstrong and team manager Johan Bruyneel questioned his credentials when he returned to his home after a bike training ride. He said Armstrong could go in and shower while Bruyneel made some phone calls.
The agency, which said his tests were clean, said Armstrong should not have left the sight of doping control. He was gone for about 20 minutes to take a shower.
Initially, Armstrong was sure the controversy would result in his being banned from the Tour de France. On Friday, however, Armstrong wrote at his Twitter account:
“Just got the word from the French agency AFLD on the shower gate incident. Case closed, no penalty, all samples clean. Onward”
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