(NOTE: Update — UCI has no evidence against Armstrong) I'm not so sure there's much use in the Union Cycliste Internationale investigating the EPO doping claims issued by L'Equipe last week.
Without naming Lance Armstrong specifically, the UCI said Monday that it's “pursuing its global assessment of the situation.”
I suppose it's comforting that cycling's governing body will study the claims, but what kind of results can it reach? The group said it will issue its conclusions in 10 days.
L'Equipe said that within the past year, a French lab had detected amounts of banned EPO in urine samples taken from an anonymous cyclist during the 1999 Tour de France. While the lab said the identity of the donors was unknown, L'Equipe matched numbers on six of the samples to numbers on forms filed by Armstrong in 1999.
Armstrong vehemently denies he used the blood doping agent EPO, going so far as saying he was set up. There are no further samples to test from 1999, however, and it boils down to a case of “he said, she said.”
On Larry King Live (a full transcript at The Paceline) on Friday Armstrong went on the attack. He rejected the use of 5 or 6 year old samples. He also said he provided 17 “B” samples in 1999 (the “A” samples are tested immediately, and the “B” samples are saved as a backup in case the “A” samples turn out positive).
“So why are six of them positive and the other 11 aren't? I'm saying there were 17 samples. So, if the drug would stay around for two, three, four weeks, we have 17 samples given, and only six of them positive. What happened to the other 11?”
Maybe if the other 11 weren't tested, and the UCI can put its hands on them, then we'd have a real conclusion to this mess.
The text of the press release from UCI:
Following the revelations published last week in the press concerning the results of analysis of urine samples from the 1999 Tour de France, the UCI confirms that it is pursuring its global assessment of the situation.
Whilst regreting, once more, the breach of confidentiality principle which lead to the divulgence of this information outside the procedures foreseen within the regulations of the international sports instances, the UCI announces that it will communicate its conclusions on this case within the next 10 days.
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