Tygart reveals new evidence on Armstrong

Fresh evidence has emerged of how Lance Armstrong managed to avoid positive drugs tests that raises further questions about the International Cycling Union’s (UCI) involvement in the scandal.

The head of the US anti-doping agency (USADA) Travis Tygart has claimed the director of the drug-testing laboratory in Lausanne told him he provided the cyclist with the information to avoid positive tests for the blood-boosting agent EPO at the request of the UCI.

Concerns have previously been expressed about a ‘triangle’ — with the UCI accepting a $100,000 (€120,000) donation from Armstrong in 2002 and around that time the UCI gave the Lausanne laboratory free use of a blood analyser worth $60-70,000.

Tygart, the man who brought charges against Armstrong that led to him being stripped of seven Tour de France titles, told US television programme 60 Minutes that the Lausanne laboratory’s director Martial Saugy admitted he met Armstrong and US Postal manager Johan Bruyneel in 2002 to explain how the EPO test worked — but at the request of the UCI.

The UCI insist the meetings were arranged as a “deterrent” to show riders they were getting tough on doping. The meeting was a year after Armstrong returned a “suspect sample” at the Tour de Suisse, which had been tested in Lausanne.

Tygart said: “Saugy sat beside me and said: ‘Travis, there is a sample from Lance Armstrong that indicates Lance Armstrong used EPO’. Saugyalso told us that he had been ordered by the UCI to meet Lance Armstrong and Johan Bruyneel to explain the method of detecting EPO, something that was unusual for him.

“So I asked him: ‘Did you give Lance Armstrong and Johan Bruyneel the keys to beating EPO tests?’ And he nodded to say yes. He explained to them, just the two of them. As far as I know, it’s unprecedented.”

Tygart also confirmed that USADA had rejected an offer of a donation from Armstrong of more than $150,000 in 2004. “It was a clear conflict of interest for USADA and we had no hesitation rejecting that offer.”

Armstrong is due to break his silence on the doping allegations on Oprah Winfrey’s TV talk show next Thursday.