EPO LANCE

[Tenuvil]

I don't buy it. I say either poor testing or someone spiked the samples.

Then again I didn't buy Tyler's positive for homologous blood transfusion either, but it appears that his options are running out there.

[Pherr the Dorf]

Pretty non conclusive evidence on it's own... but damn if there ain't OMGIAMRETARDEDCAUSEALOTISTWOWORDS of it

[Crav]

From everything I've read there is no way to conclusively prove or disprove it since there is no second set of samples to test. I will find it funny if Lance sues the newspaper and continues to make money off the French .

[noel]

With no A samples, no code of ethics followed, and no way for Lance to defend himself, I'd like the lab in France to first explain the other 100+ samples that don't contain EPO. I always said I wouldn't be surprised if Lance was caught doping, but in my mind, this isn't caught anything. There are too many questions and too much bullshit and dare I say jealousy?

Doctor Christiane Ayotte, the director of the Doping Control
Laboratory at Montreal's Institut National de la Recherché
Scientifiquethe (Canada's top anti-doping laboratory) had the
following comments:

Of particular note:
http://www.velonews.com/news/fea/8746.0.html

"We are extremely surprised that urine samples could have been tested
in 2004 and have revealed the presence of EPO," Ayotte said in an
interview with VeloNews on Tuesday. "EPO - in its natural state or the
synthesized version - is not stable in urine, even if stored at minus
20 degrees."

And:

"I am very worried about the circumstances about the way such
information might have been leaked," Ayotte said. "We are fully
allowed - and it is our duty - to investigate samples to make sure
that if there is an adverse finding, it is properly reported. In this
case, however, the director of the laboratory acknowledges that it
cannot be deemed a doping offense because 1) the athlete has retired
and 2) he is placed in a situation where there is now way to have the
sample re-tested or verified."

"It seems to me," Ayotte continued, "that this whole thing is breach
of the WADA code. We are supposed to work confidentially until such
time that we can confirm a result. By no means does this mean that we
sweep a result under the carpet, but it has to meet a certain set of
requirements."

Ayotte said that the lab itself isn't facing questions in the matter.

"It isn't the lab that has the critical bit of information - the link
between the code on the sample and the name of the athlete," she
noted. "We only get a code at these WADA labs. Someone else must have
supplied the paper with the names and their respective codes. So, to
me, this whole thing raises a number of questions. I'm worried,
because I have a great deal of respect for my colleagues in Paris. I
am concerned that they did not cover their backs before being dragged
into a very public issue of this kind."

[Winnow]

Sounds like a scam to me. Someone playing around with 6 year old piss is freaky anyway. This won't hurt Lance's place in history. The Frenchie's can't be trusted.

[Kelshara]

I've said it all along: I am 99% sure he used something coming back from his cancer. However, this is far from conclusive proof at all. It IS very interesting though.

[masteen]

He was very up-front about the fact that they gave him EPO as part of his chemotherapy. Something to do with the chemo destroying lots of red-blood cells and killing him without it.

The fact that the "A" sample is nowhere to be found invalidates everything those bitter frogs have to say. Hey France, think of it this way: Lance is gone, so you can go back to losing to Germans and Italians, just like always!

[Tenuvil]

I've said it all along: I am 99% sure he used something coming back from his cancer. However, this is far from conclusive proof at all. It IS very interesting though.

I'm 100% sure he used EPO as part of his cancer treatment...he says so openly in his first book. His cancer treatments were long over with before he resumed his racing career however, and synthetic EPO breaks down very rapidly. If he took EPO for chemo-related RBC production last in say December 1996, it would be undetectable and out of his system by January or February 1997.

The ethical implications of what the lab and L'Equipe did are just awful. I can see using old samples as a control to test the effectiveness of a new test protocol. I'd be very interested in learning ow these anonymous samples, that only have a code number per World Anti-Doping Association bylaws and that are completely unknown to lab workers, were identified as Armstrong's. Maybe they should dig up some of Eddy Merckx's samples and test those against current standards? <<Le Mensonge Merckx!!>

[Kelshara]

I know he took it for his treatment. I also believe he took it for his first win. Remember that they did not have tests for it back then so it wouldn't surprise me if a large majority used it.

Btw, I laugh at those of you who bash France and the French for this. If you read up a bit you would discover that people writing in about this incident support Lance.

[noel]

The test for EPO has been in use since '02. Last I checked, Lance raced after that. Since the test has been in since '02, why the fuck did they wait until now to test the '99 samples? Why did the large-scale French investigation that led up to the '01 tour find nothing?

Also, to touch on what Kelshara said, the majority of the French people actually like Armstrong. L'Equipe has never liked him and has taken pot shots at him for the last several years.

[Chidoro]

I'm 100% sure he used EPO as part of his cancer treatment...he says so openly in his first book.

EPO is used for most every invasive hospital procedure these days. Back when I was working for NY Presby, the amount of money spent on Epogen in comparison to other drugs on an annual basis was astounding. And it wasn't expensive per dose such as Carboplatin, it was because it was almost always used in all types of procedures.

[Winnow]

Why Lance isn't an athlete:

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/video/ ... rated.html

Someone watch this and tell me if Barkley makes a fool of himself.

[noel]

Why Lance isn't an athlete:

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/video/ ... rated.html

Someone watch this and tell me if Barkley makes a fool of himself.

Barkley, like many people, has no idea what it takes to 'just ride a bike'. I'd go so far as to say there's some validity to what Barkley says if you take a cyclist and have him ride along on a flat course with no curves and no other riders. The fact is though that while cycling is relativley simple when you're cruising along at 15-25mph on a flat straight course, once you start riding in a pack, riding down a hill at 60mph or doing a real technical climb, you find that not only does the bike NOT do most of the work... not only does the gearing not make it easy enough to be EASY, but it takes a hell of a lot of balance, coordination and agility. Mountain biking is in some ways more difficult in terms of balance, coordination, and agility.

I guarantee that if Barkley, or a lot of the shock jocks that say cyclists aren't athletes (to get a reaction out of people) got onto a bike, and seriously attempted to be good at it, they'd have a new respect for what it takes, and they'd never in a million years compare a cyclist to a racecar driver.

There are all kinds of sports that require all kinds of skills. Some sports (like golf) are more skill based, and some are more fitness based, but there are all different kinds of athletes.