AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — Lance Armstrong is facing more doping allegations just a few months after he thought he had finally put them to rest.
Although federal investigators in February closed a twoyear investigation without bringing criminal charges, the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency has filed new doping charges that could strip the seventime Tour de France winner of his victories in cycling’s premier race.
Armstrong insists he is innocent.
“I have never doped, and, unlike many of my accusers, 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,” Armstrong said. “Any fair consideration of these allegations has and will continue to vindicate me.”
The move by USADA immediately bans him from competing in triathlons, which he turned to after he retired from cycling last year.
Armstrong has been dogged by doping allegations since his first Tour victory in 1999, but had hoped his fight to be viewed as a clean champion was finally won after federal prosecutors closed their probe. Armstrong has said the investigation took a heavy emotional toll.
But USADA officials insisted they would continue to pursue their investigation into Armstrong and his former teams and doctors, and notified him of the charges in a 15-page letter on Tuesday. Unlike federal prosecutors, USADA isn’t burdened by proving a crime occurred, just that there was use of performance enhancing drugs.
In its letter, USADA said its investigation included evidence dating to 1996. It also included the new charge that Armstrong blood samples taken in 2009 and 2010 are “fully consistent with blood manipulation including EPO use and/or blood transfusions.” Armstrong came out of his first retirement to race in the Tour de France those two years.
Armstrong, in France training for a triathlon, dismissed the latest allegations as “baseless” and “motivated by spite.”
Even though he last won the Tour seven years ago, the 40- year-old Armstrong remains a popular — if polarizing — figure, partly because of his charity work for cancer patients.
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