Twist in the tale of Lance Armstrong doping case
George Hincapie, Christian Vande Velde, Levi Leipheimer and David Zabriskie have testified against their former team-mate Lance Armstrong as reported by De Telegraaf.
All the four riders will face a six months ban after admitting the charges but the effective date is not yet been finalised.
Seven-time Tour de France winner, Lance Armstrong has been accused of using performance enhancing drugs in his career which helped him with his numerous first place finishes in the past years.
The cyclist has repeatedly denied the allegations and noted that he has given more than 500 doping tests and have never failed a single one of them.
"I have never doped, and, unlike many of my accusers,” Armstrong cited.
“I have competed as an endurance athlete for 25 years with no spike in performance, passed more than 500 drug tests and never failed one”.
“That USADA ignores this fundamental distinction and charges me instead of the admitted dopers says far more about USADA”.
“Its lack of fairness and this vendetta than it does about my guilt or innocence".
The latest report which occupies the front-two pages has also pointed a finger at Team Garmin-Sharp Director Jonathan Vaughters.
"Miraculously, USADA has arranged for the suspensions to begin at the start at the end of the season so that they are able to race both the Tour de France and the Vuelta a Espana," the paper reports.
The American was charged by USADA for doping which started during his stay with Team United States Postal Services through 1996-2004.
He was also accused of doping with Team Discovery Channel (2005-07), Team Astana (2009) and Team RadioShack (2010).
Johan Bruyneel, Dr. Pedro Celaye, Dr. Luis Garcia del Moral, Dr. Michele Ferrari and Mr. Pepe Marti were also charged for doping.
The 40-year-old started his professional career in 1992 and has registered numerous wins during his stay with numerous teams in the past years.
He is considered as one of the best stage race cyclists and was completely invincible throughout the Tour de France 1999-2005 as he secured the first overall position at the race including 22 individual stages at the race.
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