Federal prosecutors investigating whether Lance Armstrong used performance enhancing drugs as a member of the US Postal Service team are in France collecting evidence, according to reports.
Sources told the Gazzetta dello Sport newspaper that US investigators met with French, Spanish and Italian police representatives at Interpol headquarters in Lyon.
The move to Europe comes about a week after RadioShack teammate Yaroslav Popovych was questioned by a grand jury meeting in Los Angeles. Several former teammates of Armstrong have been questioned in front of the grand jury, as well as representatives of his sponsors, including Oakley.
Popovych had been served a summons while participating in the LiveStrong Challenge in Austin, Texas, the previous week. According to his attorney, Popovych testified that he never witnessed doping as a member of Armstrong's teams.
After his testimony, Italian police searched his home in Tuscany and seized mobile phones, a computer and address book, according to reports. These materials were either discussed by the Italians at the meeting in Lyon or handed over to US authorities.
Flying over to Europe for the investigation are Food and Drug Administration investigator Jeff Novitsky, Asst. US Attorney Doug Miller and US Anti-Doping Agency CEO Travis Tygart.
In addition to talking with Italian and Spanish law enforcement authorities, they also reportedly interviewed representatives of the Châtenay-Malabry anti-doping laboratory and AFLD, the French anti-doping agency.
Their conversations may have involved the Armstrong urine samples collected at the 1999 Tour de France and retested in 2005. The French lab alleged it found evidence of EPO in the samples, but a UCI investigation ruled the samples proved no such thing.
Armstrong has steadfastly denied using performance-enhancing drugs during his career. The current investigation was sparked this spring by Floyd Landis, who admitted to doping during his career and implicated Armstrong as well.
Check Cycling Weekly, Cycling News, and VeloNews for more reporting on the investigation.
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