UCI says Armstrong doping reports came from its staff

LONDON (Reuters) – Cycling’s ruling body (UCI) said on
Monday that a member of its staff had provided a French sports
daily with doping control forms signed by Lance Armstrong
during the 1999 Tour de France.

In August, L’Equipe daily, saying it had access to
laboratory documents, reported that six of Armstrong’s urine
samples collected on the 1999 Tour showed “indisputable” traces
of the illegal blood-boosting erythropoietin (EPO).

Armstrong, who retired last year after winning his seventh
Tour, has denied ever taking performance-enhancing drugs. In
October, the UCI appointed a Dutch lawyer to investigate the
allegations.

The UCI has previously denied the forms on which the
article was partly based had come from within the organization.

On Monday, it said in a statement that a L’Equipe
journalist had told the UCI in July he wanted to write an
article about Armstrong “confirming that since his return to
competition in 1999, he had never taken any medicine in
relation with possible consequences of the cancer he had
overcome.”

With Armstrong’s permission, the UCI said it showed the
journalist doping control forms so he could “ascertain for
himself that no such medication had been mentioned on the forms
by Mr Armstrong.”

The journalist was also provided with a copy of one form as
an example. His article in August was about a report by an
anti-doping laboratory near Paris based on research conducted
on samples from the 1999 Tour, and six doping control forms
signed by Armstrong.

At the time the UCI said that only a photocopy of one form
had been provided to the journalist but, after being shown
copies of the 15 forms signed by Armstrong in 1999 during the
Turin Olympic Games, it launched an internal investigation.

“The internal investigation of the UCI has indeed resulted
in the fact that the staff member concerned has now admitted
that he must have given to (journalist) Mr. Ressiot a copy of
all 15 forms, instead of just one,” the UCI statement said.

“It is to be emphasised that this was done in the absolute
conviction that Mr. Ressiot was indeed doing his inquiry for
the purpose of writing an article proving that Mr. Armstrong
never asked for an authorisation to use any drugs after he
successfully fought his cancer.”

“For its part UCI has immediately taken the appropriate
internal measures.”