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Posted on 10/11/2012 9:55:58 AM PDT by AmericanSamurai
Officially, Jose "Pepe" Marti was listed as trainer for the Postal Service cycling team. But those on the team knew him as "The Courier."
One day while chatting with Tyler Hamilton, Pepe told the Postal Service surrogate that he had to drive to Nice, France, to make a delivery. That night, at the Villa d'Este Restaurant in Nice, Pepe arrived to a late dinner that included Lance Armstrong and his then-wife, Kristin, as well as Betsy Andreu, wife of Postal rider Frankie Andreu. According to Betsy, the reason given for the late dinner was because Pepe was there to deliver EPO (erythropoietin, a banned hormone that controls red blood cell production) to Lance and it was safer for him to cross the border with illegal drugs at night.
After dinner was over, the Armstrongs drove Betsy home. At some point, she saw Pepe hand Lance a brown paper bag. As Armstrong opened the car door for Andreu, he smiled, held up the bag and said, "Liquid gold."
On another occasion, as the Armstrongs and Andreus drove to a bike race in Milan, Italy, Armstrong stopped at a hotel/gas station outside Milan to meet Dr. Michele Ferrari, now infamous for supplying cyclists with performance-enhancing drugs. When asked why they were meeting him in such an odd place, Armstrong replied, "So the [expletive] press doesn't hound him." Leaving the other three in the car, Armstrong disappeared into Ferrari's camper for about an hour. When he returned, Armstrong exclaimed, "My numbers are great!" – the insinuation being he wouldn't test positive for performance-enhancing drugs.
The next day, Betsy Andreu asked Kristin Armstrong about her feelings on EPO. Her answer: It's a necessary evil.
Just three months later, Lance Armstrong won the 1999 Tour de France.
(Excerpt) Read more at sports.yahoo.com ...
Every damn athlete uses something these days. Meds are meds.
So how did he never cail a drug test....ever? Doesn’t add up to me.
I do not care what these evil b’stards say.
Lance does not have to play their game.
He is a man; they are weasels.
I wish some of Lance’s friend, like GW Bush, would help him out on this.
Argh.... Fail not cail
Same here. Something isn't right about this whole mess.
From what I understand, Lance is a huge Obamoid. lol
I wouldn’t care if Lance were a Conservative, if he cheated, they should strip all those wins.
The whole point of cheating is not getting caught - which means keeping one step ahead of the tests in the technology you use.
It's simple logic: if the testmakers were creative enough to predict how the testfakers would find a way around the test, and they would anticipate that workaround . . . ad inifinitum.
And where were all these so-called witnesses while this was supposedly all going on. We're talking years and years here. They're testifying against him now, but where were they then? Were they doing the drugs too? And if it's true, who were his enablers? All of a sudden, this guy's an evil person? It doesn't add up to me either.
“I wish some of Lance’s friend, like GW Bush, would help him out on this.”
You can’t be series.
Dumping his wife for Sheryl Crow told me all I needed to know about Lance’s ethics.
Armstrong is not only guilty, he's one nasty SOB. Anyone who things Armstrong is innocent is utterly ignorant of the facts or is a fool. I'm sorry, not trying to be mean but it's the truth.
The only reason the US doping case against Armstrong was dismissed last year was because of a political appointee doing the will of the Armstrong team. You simply can't imagine how bad Armstrong really is. I also think back to how Armstrong drove his former assistant out of the country who is now living in New Zealand.
Well what did you expect, he’s a liberal !
I am pretty torn about this whole deal.
On the one hand, it is obvious that Armstrong was doping. I think it is probably also true that he was a ringleader in the doping for his teams. But I also think his wife is right to the extent of is being a “necessary evil” for the top riders. All of the top riders were doping, and it should be obvious to everyone paying attention that this was a sport-wide phenomena not limited just to Lance and his team.
OTOH, I’m unclear why the USADA is going after a retired athlete. I also find it really alarming how there is alack of due process for accused athletes with the USADA.
Was Lance doping? Of course.
But is it within the USADA’s jurisdiction to investigate a retired athlete regarding a well-known dirty sport? And is it appropriate that the USADA could act as prosecutor, judge and jury?
What if the USADA went after Ronnie Coleman for doping in the sport of professional bodybuilding? It is plainly obvious that *every* contestant in Mr. Universe contests is doping. So would it be appropriate for the USADA to single out one retired champ like Coleman for sins of the past that everyone in the sport was doing?
Marion Jones never failed a drug test either.
No kidding! Some people worship Armstrong like they do obama.
As if he’s a paragon of virtue and all that is good, lol.
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