If you want to understand the background behind the latest charges against Lance Armstrong concerning performance enhancing drugs that have surfaced in the French press, you'd do well to read and listen to a report that ran on NPR's Weekend Edition that included sworn testimony from a lawsuit Armstrong filed against a company that had promised to pay him $5 million if he won his sixth straight Tour de France in 2004:
According to sworn testimony reviewed by NPR, two witnesses heard Armstrong openly acknowldege in 1996 that had used several performance enhancing drugs. What you are about to hear are the details from that testimony and from one witnesses who says she was there when Lance Armstrong said he used "growth hormone, cortisone, EPO, steroids and testosterone." Armstrong is angrily denying that the incident happened.
Armstrong eventually won that suit against SCA, and was awarded both the original $5 million, as well as an additional $2.5 million.
Please note that these charges are distinct from a story that appeared over the weekend in L'Equpie, where former Tour champion Greg LeMond charged:
LeMond, the first American to win the Tour - he won in 1986, 1989 and 1990 - said that he had come under pressure from Armstrong and his circle of friends after saying in 2001 that he was disappointed at the cyclist's association with Italian sports doctor Michele Ferrari. LeMond said that the threats continued after 2001."Lance threatened me. He threatened my wife, my business, my life," LeMond told French sports daily L'Equipe. "His biggest threat consisted of saying that he (Armstrong) would find 10 people to testify that I took EPO."
Something tells me we're going to be hearing these stories about Armstrong in the run-up to the Tour de France every single year for the rest of his life.
UPDATE: Armstrong has issued a perfunctory denial.
