Wednesday 24 July 2013

Armstrong Urges US Ban Dismissal

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Lance Armstrong has called for a federal lawsuit by the US government against him to be dismissed.

The suit argued that the 41-year-old defrauded the public by insisting he was not using drugs during his seven Tour de France wins.

He was stripped of the titles last year and admitted doping this year.

However Armstrong has accused his government of overlooking allegations because his team were sponsored by the US Postal Service.

"Although the government now pretends to be aggrieved by these allegations, its actions at the time are far more telling," Armstrong's motion states.

Armstrong, who was riding for the US Postal Service team at the time relating to the lawsuit, ended years of denial in January during an interview with chat show host Oprah Winfrey in which he described doping as part of the process of winning the Tour.

The Texan rider asked an American judge to dismiss the justice False Claims Act lawsuit on Tuesday.

"Did it suspend the team pending an investigation? Did it refer the matter to its phalanx of lawyers and investigators at the Department of Justice for review? It did not," his motion continued.

"Rather than exercise its right to terminate the sponsorship agreement, it instead renewed its contract to sponsor the team.

"The rationale behind the government's decision is obvious. Armstrong had recently won the 2000 Tour de France. The government wanted a winner and all the publicity, exposure, and acclaim that goes along with being his sponsor. It got exactly what it bargained for."

Armstrong has also argued that the government's case is too old to move forward because it is barred by the six-year statute of limitations.

The American rider, who won the Tour a record seven times between 1999 and 2005, was last year exposed as a serial drug user in a US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) report that plunged cycling into crisis.

The cancer survivor, who insisted for years that he did not take performance-enhancing drugs, was stripped of his Tour titles and banned from the sport for life.

Armstrong also said he was not shocked by a French senate inquiry’s findings that the top two in the 1998 Tour de France took the banned blood booster EPO because “virtually all of us broke the rules, and lied about it”.

“I am not surprised,” the disgraced Tour winner said: “As I have said, it was an unfortunate era for all of us.”

The French senate inquiry, published on Wednesday, named him as testing positive for EPO in 1999.

The American called for cycling to address its doping past in a “collective and co-operative manner”.

He said: “If we don’t come together, have the conversation and draw a line in the sand and then move on, we’re all screwed.”

In January, Armstrong admitted having taken performance-enhancing drugs and it came after he was stripped of the Tour titles he won from 1999 to 2005 in October 2012, when the United States Anti-doping Agency (Usada) said it had uncovered a sophisticated doping programme.

The Italian Marco Pantani, who won the Tour in 1998 and died of a drug overdose in 2004, and Jan Ullrich of Germany, who finished second in 1998, were among those named in the 918-page report compiled by a parliamentary group, who called for a “truth and reconciliation” commission to be created to lift the veil of silence on illegal practices.

Since Armstrong confessed to doping to Oprah Winfrey on her show in January, he has called for a truth and reconciliation programme on several occasions.

Wada, the World Anti-doping Agency, the International Cycling Union(UCI) and national federations have been wary of the suggestion, although the UCI presidential candidate Brian Cookson has appeared open to the suggestion of Armstrong sharing his past.

Armstrong continued: “I have not been contacted by anyone. I suspect in many ways they (Wada) are afraid of a truth and reconciliation commission as it would fly in the face of the now famous talking point ‘the most sophisticated doping programme in the history of the world’.”

Asked if the senate’s findings would benefit the sport, Armstrong added: “I don’t know. I really don’t. I’d like to think that there is some good in all this but, from my perspective, sitting here today, there has been nothing but damage done to the sport.
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