UCI questions WADA’s behavior in Armstrong case

By AFP

The Union Cycliste Internationale hit back at the World Anti-Doping Agency Saturday amid ongoing hostilities over a report that cleared Lance Armstrong of 1999 Tour de France doping allegations.

In a statement, the UCI called on WADA to clarify whether it had put pressure on a French laboratory to take steps that would have enabled the identification of athletes in subsequent research on doping samples.

Moves to bypass confidentiality and conduct research without an athlete’s consent would have violated the World Anti-Doping Code, it added.

“WADA should not be allowed to divert the attention on side issues, but asked publicly to answer the many pertinent questions in the Vrijman report,” the UCI said.

WADA chief Dick Pound on Friday ripped the investigation report by Dutch attorney Emile Vrijman, saying it was farcical and was not objective.

Vrijman was appointed by the UCI last October to investigate the credibility of reports by the French newspaper L’Equipe claiming Armstrong used improper substances in 1999.

The newspaper said urine tests purportedly from Armstrong tested positive for EPO after tests that were not available in 1999 were applied to the sample.

Armstrong steadfastly denied any wrongdoing and Vrijman’s 132-page report backed him, suggesting a tribunal to consider alleged legal and ethical wrongdoing by WADA, Pound, and a French anti-doping laboratory.

The UCI on Saturday also targeted criticism in L’Equipe, raising questions about possible collusion with WADA in its articles on the Armstrong doping tests.

WADA said the investigation report appeared to be defamatory and that it had taken legal advice on possible recourse “against the investigator and any organization, including UCI, that may publicly adopt its conclusions.”

Armstrong, who has retired after a record seven consecutive Tour de France triumphs, has praised Vrijman’s report. The former cyclist accused Pound of involvement in a “witch hunt” against him.

The UCI and WADA were already at loggerheads when the World Anti-Doping Code was drawn up, and over its subsequent application in cycling.

But their relations have reached an unprecedented degree of acrimony less than two months after Pound and the UCI’s new chief Pat McQuaid held a “constructive and helpful” meeting in Switzerland.

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