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French Authorities Launch Second Armstrong Investigation
23rd January 2001
Paris
Following the French Judiciaries investigation into Lance Armstrong's 2000 Tour de France win a second investigation has been launched by the French Cycling Federation with evidence provided by the French Media.
This latest investigation was authorised by the FFC's outgoing president Daniel Ball following the
Judiciaries' inability to prove that Armstrong and his US Postal teammates had consumed doping products that were on the UCI's list of banned substances. The latest claims to rock the cycling world
allege that:
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Armstrong unfairly won the Tour, depriving a French rider of the
honour.
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Armstrong refused to attend the mandatory press conferences at the end of a stage as he could not speak French, giving him more time than the other riders to warm down.
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Armstrong systematically went to bed earlier than other riders in the peloton, thus allowing him to be alert for the following day's stage.
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The US Postal team manager Mark Gorski
repeatedly forced his riders to drink Ovaltine to ensure they had a deep relaxing sleep.
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The US Postal team secretly employed the services of popular TV magician David Copperfield who used his 'magical powers' to interfere with the daily drug tests somehow guaranteeing that all US Postal riders routinely passed with flying
colours.
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The Tour's rightful victor,
Richard Virenque, previously had his blood test samples tainted by
Dr Doug Ross whilst they were being analysed at Chicago's County General
Hospital. Dr Ross happens to be a friend of Armstrong's.
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Armstrong's Trek bicycle used on the Mont Ventoux stage had
featured microscopic NASA solar panels, invisible to the human eye, which fed a small military grade motor in the bottom bracket shell, blatantly breaching the rules that govern cycle racing.
Johan Bruyneel, directeur sportif of the US Postal squad refused to be drawn into commentating on what he calls
the "unfounded allegations" although David Copperfield has admitted to being in France for the first three weeks of July.
Marc Fromage
Paris Correspondent
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