All the sordid details: USADA evidence against Armstrong

[leftcoaster]

Report: Did Nike pay $500,000 to Verbruggen to cover up Armstrong positive?

http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/report- ... g-positive

No wonder Nike is standing behind Armstrong

[Lister Farrar]

I think the reason is, most riders with a history in the sport through the 90s early 2000's have a dilemma. If they mention what they know, their evidence will be ignored by the UCI, like landis and jaksche, they will lose their jobs, they will be penalized, and even sued as landis and Kimmage have been for damaging the image of the UCI. The UCI undertook no investigation of their allegations at all.

If they say they "never doped", who would believe them? The admitted dopers might out them, and the investigators would start to circle.

As well, they haven't been offered any deal by the USADA for reduced penalties. I hasten to say I'm not disapproving of deals, those that talk should get them.

I think the code behind "the sport has moved on", is 'yep I did it because there was little choice, but I'm also happy to support the current increased controls and to compete clean(er?), because I know most everybody else is.'

When the president of the UCI says "the riders have to prepare", what else can you do?

For these reasons, including that the passport has showed that a measurable effect on doping can be made, I think the issue is the UCI much more than the riders.

And the only way that we can help with that is to tell the folks we vote for we want change. Like at Saturdays cycling BC AGM. Who's coming?

[Rolf]

Yeah, makes sense, Lister.

I can't go to the Abbotsford on Saturday, but has (or will) a resolution been tabled to direct the CCA to request the UCI to establish a comprehensive inquiry into the USADA decision and associated activities and to request the resignation or suspension of anyone on their board or executive that has been implicated by USADA's evidence? There's no mention of it on the AGM agenda.

I note Cycling BC's constitution says one of its purposes is:

(c) To represent British Columbia and, where applicable, administer the directives of the Canadian Cycling Association, the association officially representing Canada in the world cycling organization known as Union Cycliste Internationale, and other international cycling federations to whom we are affiliated.

Their bylaws don't allow voting by proxy, but you can request a ballot for a mail-in vote, if you requested it 10 days in advance. But without a resolution tabled ahead of time, it's hard to vote in advance.

Hopefully CBC's VP of Paracycling is on board and will represent our members' interest in this issue.

Incidentally, does anyone know what was behind the cryptic email from President Pomario the other week? The one called a "May Newsletter" delivered on Oct. 6 that said there have been "issues within Cycling BC" and that "statements, not all of them completely factually accurate" have been flying around, and that even though it would be inappropriate for President Wayne to go into detail, we should rest assured the Board is working to resolve these issues in the best interests of cycling in BC. I think they need some communications help. I've never felt more excluded from a shitstorm I didn't even know existed!

[Lister Farrar]

Now allegations Verbruggen got a $500,000 bribe from Nike to accept the fake TUE for his cortisone positive.
http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/report- ... g-positive

Wonder if that's why the FDA stopped their investigation? Nike too big to go after?

[Lister Farrar]

Incidentally, does anyone know what was behind the cryptic email from President Pomario the other week? The one called a "May Newsletter" delivered on Oct. 6 that said there have been "issues within Cycling BC" and that "statements, not all of them completely factually accurate" have been flying around, and that even though it would be inappropriate for President Wayne to go into detail, we should rest assured the Board is working to resolve these issues in the best interests of cycling in BC. I think they need some communications help. I've never felt more excluded from a shitstorm I didn't even know existed!

Yes, a fight between staff members. Stirring up lots of interest, unlike usual minimal AGM attendance. Weirdly, a doping resolution may get lost in recriminations and heavy duty campaigning for new board members.

But I think a resolution should still be proposed from the floor. Interested in helping draft it?

[Rolf]

Well, they wouldn't be the first organization to lose productivity at an AGM to internecine conflict.

That article you linked on the $500K to Verbruggen features this quote:

The NY Daily News reports that Kathy LeMond testified under oath during a 2006 deposition in the SCA arbitration case that Julian Devries, a mechanic for Armstrong’s team, had told her and others that Nike and Thom Weisel ... had transferred...

Pulling back even more, you told us about the Cyclingnews article. So coming from you, that makes the story double, triple... um... quintuple hearsay! If Kathy LeMond is the only source for this "fact", it will stay unknown. I wonder if Cyclingnews would have published this story a few months ago? It's interesting how the USADA revelations have heightened suspicion and changed fans' and journalists' willingness to entertain wild speculation. I mean, look at that crazy rant about Ryder I posted last night.

As for drafting a resolution, I think I kind of did it in my post above. I should really probably stick to the day job right now. But I'll see if I can clean it up a bit tonight.

[Lister Farrar]

Thanks Rolf. Re hearsay, I hear ya say it. .

But thought it also interesting a newspaper would feel confident enough to report it. And Kathy Lemond sure enough to testify under oath, which means under threat of perjury if understand correctly. Kind weird they didnt go after her for that, no? Or do they not hear what she says in testimony?

[leftcoaster]

The Fairness fallacy..........


http://www.cyclingnews.com/features/the ... ss-fallacy

If anyone is wondering why he did it.....

...Armstrong amassed a net worth upwards of $125 million based on deception, cheating and lying, and will get to keep a large part of that, the ends very much justifying the means....

[AlW]

If they say they "never doped", who would believe them? The admitted dopers might out them, and the investigators would start to circle.

As well, they haven't been offered any deal by the USADA for reduced penalties. I hasten to say I'm not disapproving of deals, those that talk should get them.

I think we may see a few more admissions. Particularly if the riders redacted in the USADA documents are eventually identified.

As for the rest, I am sure there are many who want to come forward, but don't want to be the first, less they suffer the fate of Leipheimer. They are all looking at each other thinking "you go first. No, you go first". If it's going to come, it will have to be coordinated effort.

That would certainly put the teams in an interesting position. Firing one riding is one thing. Firing multiple riders is quite another. Speaking of Garmin... Given Omega's recent actions, will be interesting to see if there is a desire to follow suit and back up the clean image that they have cultivated over the years. It would be quite a statement to see them give Zabriske, VandeVelde and Danielson the heave-ho.

[leftcoaster]

I don't think there will be a house-cleaning at Garmin. Vaughters knew about Zabriskie, VandeVeld and Danielson's past when he hired them. He hired Dekker even though his 2 year ban was quite public.

I think Omega's firing of Liepheimer may have been conveniently facilitated by the fact they are trying to clear up space to hire Mark Cavendish. Just sayin.......

[leftcoaster]

The implosion continues..........Nike terminates Armstrong's contract.

http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/nike-te ... s-contract

Due to the seemingly insurmountable evidence that Lance Armstrong participated in doping and misled Nike for more than a decade.....

[Lister Farrar]

Just hope wonderboy's descent doesn't distract from the root cause of UCI complicity. If it took $500k to buy Verbruggen's cooperation, how much did this cost? I can't imagine Lance would go down without profit. If, of course, Nike did pay the bribe in the first place. But former rival for the UCI presidency Sylvia schenk also quoted the $100's of thousands number that Kathy Lemond, and Julian Fevries did.

As a side note, cool to see women being so key in this story. Betsy Andreu, Kathy Lemond, Emma oreilly, Sylvia Schenk, etc. Think we need more of them to balance the testosterone poisoned half. (Looking at you, ladies of the club to run for Tripleshot, cycling bc, and CCA jobs. We need you.)

[Rolf]

I see that Cycling BC's AGM has been adjourned to Dec. 2 because their expected turnout exceeded the room they'd rented for this Saturday.

This is great. Now we have time to get organized, submit a resolution seeking accountability from the UCI and all get our mail-in ballots on time. Over the next few days I'll put together another thread where we can hash out the resolution wording and start building some support.

[Josh.E]

root cause is and always was a corrupt UCI.

I think "getting Lance" became too much of an emotional end game for too many people, mainly because he was unlikeable. He had become the symbol of what was wrong is cycling, and he thrived in a corrupt system, but he wasn't the cause. Watching Lance go down may be very gratifying for some, but it isn't showing signs of fixing the core problems in the sport.

Usada has so far succeeded in imploding American Cycling, and to me looks like there is a danger of them not accomplishing much more than that. Now the Euro omerta machine is out in full force while all the quality american riders go down in one fell swoop. All the euro dopers keep a low profile and go on as before. It's kind of comical, but the euro omerta culture in cycling was in place long before Americans entered the sport, learned to play the cheating game better, then had a spell of morality and called for the whole system to torn down.
UK postal dominates this years tour as Bossan Hagan makes a mockery of the tour dropping the majority of the peloton on the lower half of the climbs. It was as ridiculous as Hincapie climbing on postal. Nibali and Basso (both dopers) make veiled statements in interviews about how Sky is on 'another level'
Now Cancellara distances himself from Johan in a carefully worded statement. Andy talks about how cycling is now cleaner, and people need to trust the riders while his brother just got popped two months ago.
Levi gets fired by Pat the ex-doper team director at pharma lotto. Interesting in Levi's statement he talks about Johan not letting Levi ride the tour in 2008 without a blood bag program, he never mentions Contador. Like Johan would not allow Levi to ride without blood yet allow it for his team leader? Levi protects the current UCI golden boy, but still gets thrown under the bus for talking. Riis and Contador continue on as before.
And where the hell is the statement from the other ex-postie lotto rider Boonen? Keeping a low profile and riding it out like all the other euro big boys and euro teams are. I'm sure he also haas no doping past whatsoever.

Maybe with less of a focus on armstrong, the USADA could have built a more international case against cycling with WADA, and taken down the UCI and the corrupt system that allows the culture of doping in the first place.

[Andrew]

http://bicycling.com/blogs/thisjustin/2 ... 99t-lying/

http://www.slate.com/articles/sports/sp ... _bros.html

[Rolf]

[jeremy]

I watched the espn special 30 for 30 9.79* last night, the story about the most famous race in history the seoul 1988 olympics 100m final, and after reading all this "new" Lance info that is floating around lately, I couldn't help but see parallels all throughout the show. One of the similarities was in the way that the athlete that has been caught cheating (Ben Johnson, or Lance) has his lifetime of hard work and dedication to their sport is suddenly forgotten by the public, as if all they did to get to the level that the were at was wake up one morning and took a magic pill and then just started winning. The way the athlete quickly starts losing everything, sponsors, friends, fans after their lying about cheating had been found out, Personally I think that the act of doping could be forgiven by the fans but the outright lying about it after the fact will not. But the biggest parallel I saw watching this show was that of Carl Lewis to Lance Armstrong, they both have this cocky attitude about them. To this day Carl still says he was never dirty, this after 3 positive tests (in an era when testing was in it's infantcy), one that should have seen him banned from even competing in the 1988 olympics, as well as the weird coincidence that he had to suddenly get braces on his teeth in his thirty's (a telltale sign that a person is taking human growth hormone). In the end 5 out of the 8 runners in the final have been found to be mixed up in drug scandals during their careers, just as a great number of the other top contenders that raced with Lance had.

[leftcoaster]

Today's fallout:

After 17 years, Rabobank has withdrawn as sponser for the Rabobank team but will guarantee the rider's salaries through 2013. McQuaid claimed it was because of a new doping charge against a Rabobank rider..........

“In light of the difficult period, namely the high public interest in past doping issues and perhaps a more recent action taken by the UCI against a rider of the team, the UCI understands the context which has led to this decision being reached,”

but Rabobank made it clear where the blame is........

“It is with pain in our heart, but for the bank this is an inevitable decision,” said Bert Bruggink, member of the board of management. “We are no longer convinced that the international professional world of cycling can make this a clean and fair sport. We are not confident that this will change for the better in the foreseeable future.”

He said that the USADA report into doping by Lance Armstrong and the US Postal Service team was the reason for the decision

http://www.velonation.com/News/ID/13097 ... eason.aspx


SKINS compression clothing company, which supports a number of teams has published this letter and an interview taking aim at Pat McQuaid and the UCI..........

http://www.velonation.com/News/ID/13104 ... esign.aspx

The UCI itself currently stands at the precipice of universal disgrace. It is an organisation that bizarrely accepted a generous personal donation from Mr. Armstrong ten years ago to 'develop the sport' and you will be aware there is mounting speculation as to the motivation for such benevolence. The phrase ‘conflict of interest’ immediately springs to mind.”

He pointed to media reports this week of an alleged payment of $500, 000 on behalf of Armstrong to former UCI President Hein Verbruggen as a further issue which must be addressed, and said that this plus the Dutchman’s previously-reported assertion that Armstrong had ‘never, never, never doped’ were issues that further eroded the UCI’s credibility.

“The UCI has a responsibility to pro-actively defend sport rather than overtly or covertly defend Lance Armstrong,” he said. “If those charged with upholding or repairing the dignity of the UCI cannot present credible and transparent answers to critical questions with a clear conscience, there is only one option.”

He concluded by imploring McQuaid to either ensure that Armstrong addresses the evidence against him, or to resign in order to “allow others to steer the recovery path at this crucial time.”

It's always about the money. If sponsors like Rabobank, which stayed around after the Rasmussen debacle, are leaving and others are publicly issuing statements like SKINS is doing, maybe the UCI will buckle and be forced to do the right thing on Monday when they announce their decision on Armstrong.

[leftcoaster]

It's official...........

http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/uci-con ... s-life-ban

UCI president Pat McQuaid announced the governing body’s position in a specially convened press conference near Geneva airport on Monday afternoon. “The UCI will not appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport and it will recognise the sanctions that USADA has proposed,” McQuaid said. “The UCI will ban Lance Armstrong from cycling and the UCI will strip him of his seven titles. Lance Armstrong has no place in cycling.”

While still maintaining the UCI's innocence..........

McQuaid also insisted that the UCI had “nothing to hide” in relation to the USADA report, and defended the UCI’s decision to accept a donation of $25,000 in 2002 and $100,000 from Armstrong in 2005

[AlW]

huh?

http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/mcquaid ... rom-heroes

No surprise that McQuaid dislikes Hamilton and Kimmage, but his attempts to justify it made no sense. Comes across as a bit of a nutbar if you ask me.....