Former US Postal Service cyclist Frankie Andreu tells the New York Times that he took the blood-boosting drug EPO in 1999.
You know Andreu. He's the former American cyclist and current OLN commentator who interviews racers before and after stages of the Tour de France. He and his wife, Betsy, testified earlier this year that they overheard former teammate Lance Armstrong tell his cancer doctors in 1996 that he used EPO and other performance-enhancing drugs. Armstrong has vociferously denied that charge.
And you know the significance of 1999. Last fall, L'Equipe reported that the French dope lab detected EPO in an Armstrong urine sample left over from the 1999 Tour de France. That charge also was disputed by Armstrong and roundly criticized by the Union Cycliste Internationale.
Andreu and an unidentified cyclist spilled the beans to Times reporter Juliet Macur, who has broken several leaks in the Floyd Landis doping scandal from the UCI and French lab.
Here's the kicker. Macur writes:
“Neither rider ever tested positive for performance-enhancing drugs, but both said they felt as if they had to take EPO to make the Tour team in 1999.”
Neither cyclist witnessed Armstrong take banned substances.
The article goes on to rehash the SCA Promotions lawsuit and allegations by former Armstrong teammate Steve Swart who admits taking EPO while riding on Motorola as a teammate of Armstrong. That disclosure was in the French book, “L.A. Confidential”.
She interviews Betsy Andreu, who found a thermos containing vials of EPO in the refrigerator in the run-up to the Tour de France in 1999. She says her husband told her he'd never be able to finish the Tour without the EPO. He says he only dosed a few times.
Armstrong and team director Johan Bruyneel were asked to comment for the article, but declined.
(Updates: Armstrong lashed out at the Times on Tuesday, calling the story “a hatchet job … to link me to doping through someone else's admission.”
Times sports editor Tom Jolly said the story was fair. “It says in the eighth paragraph his teammates never saw him take drugs… The story never accuses him of using drugs.”
Bruyneel, speaking from the Vuelta a Espana, is quoted on Eurosport as calling Andreu “a pitiful man. … In any case, neither me nor Lance are losing any sleep over this, because his attacks are no longer a surprise.”)
In a sidebar, “Fears for sport made cyclist come clean,” Andreu says he only took EPO for a couple of races but he's been nagged by guilt. He's speaking out to disclose cycling's dark side and hopefully clean it up. He doesn't want his children to have to take performance-enhancing drugs to compete.
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