French Lab To Lance Armstrong: ‘Re-Test For Good Faith’

Lance Armstrong

The latest round of egos in the Lance Armstrong versus French anti-doping authorities has unfolded. The country’s national agency (AFLD) has offered to test controversial samples taken from Lance Armstrong from the Tour de France eight years ago.

According to a report on VeloNews.com, the AFLD said it woud re-test the sample reported suspect in a 2005 article in L’Equipe, the daily sports newspaper owned by the company that owns the Tour de France.

The article claimed samples from the first of Armstrong’s seven consecutive Tour de France victories contained the banned blood-boosting drug EPO (erythropoietin).

The urine test for the presence for EPO was not introduced until the 2000 Giro d’Italia and not fully implemented until 2001. Armstrong denied charges outlined in a 2005 L’Equipe article.

The anti-doping agency said it’s offering Armstrong an analysis of his samples from the 1999 Tour de France to prove his good faith.

A spokesman for the lab said should the tests come back positive, there could be no anti-doping disciplinary procedures against Armstrong because of the eight-year moratorium on doping offenses.

And so why bother? If the tests return positive, does it mean the results are accurate? And if the tests are positive, how would it effect Armstrong’s public perception or his plans to return to the Tour de France?

And if the test results are negative, how will Armstrong reply? And if there’s no disciplinary actions feasible, why bother?

What it all sounds like is a French organization not liking Armstrong’s pending return as the center of the cycling universe 10 months prior to the Tour de France.