Bad news. More lies. Proof has come out that Lance Armstrong cheated by using performance-enhancing substances:
French sports newspaper L'Equipe has published the findings by the French National Anti-Doping Laboratory in Châtenay-Malabry that the "characteristic, indisputable and consequential presence of EPO (erythroprotein) have been detected in Armstrong's urine samples from the 1999 Tour de France.
Update 2. BBC article
here.
Update: After reading two articles in Le Monde, I just viewed an AFP video clip which gives a important detail: The tests were run on Armstrong's 1999 samples. Apparently it has been decided to review samples going back to 1999 using more sophisticated laboratory techniques. The French Ministry of Sports, the World Anti-Doping Agency, and Châtenay-Malabry have initiated the work.
More details here
The samples were taken from the 1999 3 July trials at Puy-du-Fou and following the 1st, 9th, 10th, 12th and 14th stages of the Tour de France.
Le Monde has written the following editorial:
The Lie
Lance Armstrong won the Tour de France this year as he did for six years straight. One month after his victory, after the American racer announced his retirement and rode with his friend, President George W. Bush, documents have revealed practices contrary to the ethics of sportsmanship.
The results of an analysis performed by the National Antidoping Laboratory in Châtenay-Malabry published in the Tuesday August 23rd edition of the sports daily L'Equipe, reveal that Lance Armstrong lied.
During the 1999 Tour de France following the Festina Affair, which was intended to mark the "new leaf" of cycling, Lance Armstrong took EPO (erythroprotein). Traces of the performance-enhancing drug were found in the urine of the Texan during the six stages of this race which propelled him to fame.
At that time, Le Monde wrote
Barring a catastrophe, Lance Armstrong will will the Tour de France this year. Three years after beating cancer, the US racer flew through the Tour de France and never gave the impression of being particularly concerned by the competition. Was this demonstration of superiority in itself reason to doubt his performance and raise suspicion of doping? For now nothing enables us to affirm that Lance Armstrong uses performance-enhancing substances. But of course he was using them to cure his allergic dematitis--a pommade based on glucocortizoids-. Le Monde will make no mention now of any illegal substances...
.In the caravan as well as among other racers, our reserves were not fully appreciated and our special correspondents remained discrete in an environment ready to get defensive. In July 1991, Armstrong himself said he had nothing to hide and did not use substances based on EPO. Armstrong condemned a "vicious press" which attempted to discredit him.
Our role is to inform the public. To explain over the years following his first victory on the Champs-Elysées all those strange links between Armstrong and the Italian physician condemned for cheating at sports--to give voice to his compatriots, who like Greg LeMond, expressed doubt on the genuineness of Armstrong's performance. To tell the strange story of a former assistant and a caretaker who reported unorthodox practices.
Today, proof of lying by the world recordholder has been published. The victor of the Tour de France must fall. The extraordinary champion that all the world wanted to see does not exist...