Andreu admits EPO use
Remember two months ago when I said that nobody comes out clean in a mudslinging?
Well, Frankie Andreu just threw the first mudball in this interview with the New York Times. It's not a direct hit on Lance Armstrong, but Andreu and one other unnamed teammate on the 1999 US Postal squad have admitted to using the banned substance EPO. It was the 1999 team that helped lead Lance Armstrong to his first Tour de France victory. The unnamed teammate of Armstrong wishes to remain anonymous because he fears he'll lose his current job in cycling.
A quick search HERE on Cyclingnews lists all the teams from the 1999 TDF.
Below were the US Postal riders on the '99 TDF roster:
181. Lance Armstrong (USA)
182. Frankie Andreu (USA)
183. Pascal Derame (Fra)
184. Tyler Hamilton (USA)
185. George Hincapie (USA)
186. Kevin Livingston (USA)
187. Peter Meinert-Nielsen (Den)
188. Christian Vandevelde (USA)
189. Jonathan Vaughters (USA)
It should be fairly easy to determine who the unnamed rider is, and my money is on #189. It's not Tyler because he's been busted and doesn't have a job. It's not George or Christian because they're still active pros and would never end their career in such a manner. It could be Kevin Livingston, but he's got his own coaching and consulting company.
I can't find any current info on Pascal Derame. Rider #189 appears to have the most to lose with his current position as team director for TIAA-CREF. Plus, #189's name was involved in the latest insurance lawsuit between Lance and SCA Promotions. Unless the NYT writer got it wrong and it was someone simply on the team for 1999, but not on the nine man Tour de France roster.
I will bet you a dollar that Lance and his lawyers are tracking down every single person associated with the team in 1999. The gist of that phone call will be, "you've got to release a statement stating you never saw or had knowledge of Lance taking EPO." According to the article all of the key players were contacted by the NYT for a response to the article, but nobody was willing to contribute.
I don't care if you're the biggest Lance fan on the planet. We are now getting intimately close to the man himself with doped teammates and not some disgruntled soigneur from a distance. Frankie Andreu is one of the most highly respected people in the cycling industry, and was even more respected as a professional rider. Under this circumstance he has absolutely nothing to gain yet everything to lose for the future.
You think the '98 Festina affair was big? You think the Operation Puerto is big? You think the Landis ordeal is big? I truly believe we haven't seen anything yet. As Frankie says at the end of the article, only riders can clean up cycling.
When more retired and/or current professionals step forward and admit drug use it will be the moment cycling takes a huge step forward to ending doping. Eventually the sport will reach a tipping point when it'll be acceptable to admit such a mistake. We haven't approached that point yet, but if a few more respected riders step forward it'll encourage others to do the same. I'm not saying a rider should come out and point fingers at others, but only come out and speak for their own actions.
Read a statement issued by Frankie Andreu HERE.
The spigot is just beginning to open.
Well, Frankie Andreu just threw the first mudball in this interview with the New York Times. It's not a direct hit on Lance Armstrong, but Andreu and one other unnamed teammate on the 1999 US Postal squad have admitted to using the banned substance EPO. It was the 1999 team that helped lead Lance Armstrong to his first Tour de France victory. The unnamed teammate of Armstrong wishes to remain anonymous because he fears he'll lose his current job in cycling.
A quick search HERE on Cyclingnews lists all the teams from the 1999 TDF.
Below were the US Postal riders on the '99 TDF roster:
181. Lance Armstrong (USA)
182. Frankie Andreu (USA)
183. Pascal Derame (Fra)
184. Tyler Hamilton (USA)
185. George Hincapie (USA)
186. Kevin Livingston (USA)
187. Peter Meinert-Nielsen (Den)
188. Christian Vandevelde (USA)
189. Jonathan Vaughters (USA)
It should be fairly easy to determine who the unnamed rider is, and my money is on #189. It's not Tyler because he's been busted and doesn't have a job. It's not George or Christian because they're still active pros and would never end their career in such a manner. It could be Kevin Livingston, but he's got his own coaching and consulting company.
I can't find any current info on Pascal Derame. Rider #189 appears to have the most to lose with his current position as team director for TIAA-CREF. Plus, #189's name was involved in the latest insurance lawsuit between Lance and SCA Promotions. Unless the NYT writer got it wrong and it was someone simply on the team for 1999, but not on the nine man Tour de France roster.
I will bet you a dollar that Lance and his lawyers are tracking down every single person associated with the team in 1999. The gist of that phone call will be, "you've got to release a statement stating you never saw or had knowledge of Lance taking EPO." According to the article all of the key players were contacted by the NYT for a response to the article, but nobody was willing to contribute.
I don't care if you're the biggest Lance fan on the planet. We are now getting intimately close to the man himself with doped teammates and not some disgruntled soigneur from a distance. Frankie Andreu is one of the most highly respected people in the cycling industry, and was even more respected as a professional rider. Under this circumstance he has absolutely nothing to gain yet everything to lose for the future.
You think the '98 Festina affair was big? You think the Operation Puerto is big? You think the Landis ordeal is big? I truly believe we haven't seen anything yet. As Frankie says at the end of the article, only riders can clean up cycling.
When more retired and/or current professionals step forward and admit drug use it will be the moment cycling takes a huge step forward to ending doping. Eventually the sport will reach a tipping point when it'll be acceptable to admit such a mistake. We haven't approached that point yet, but if a few more respected riders step forward it'll encourage others to do the same. I'm not saying a rider should come out and point fingers at others, but only come out and speak for their own actions.
Read a statement issued by Frankie Andreu HERE.
The spigot is just beginning to open.
posted by NashvilleCyclist.com at 9/12/2006 08:16:00 AM
2 Comments:
it's gotta be vaughters, right? the only thing that makes me think that it wouldn't be him is that comment that he made in "lance armstrong's war" about lance's relationship w/ ferrari-you wouldn't think that he'd point that finger if he had been doing it as well.
As Frankie stated in a segment on NPR Wednesday morning (and inplied in his released statement), he disclosed his relatively minor involvement with EPO "to relieve his conscience." The NYT writer was the one who linked the revelation to Armstrong's Tour campaign. In Frankie's online statement released at VeloNews, he states he never disclosed a specific time/date when he doped; that "fact" was created by the sports writer. This liberty with a fact and the article's inuendo suggest that the writer may have obtained a statement from an anonymous "teammate" who was not a Tour team member.
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