Armstrong "exoneration" under attack

[Mika]

Armstrong "exoneration" under attack
http://www.procycling.com/news.aspx?ID=2150

The UCI this afternoon condemned what it called a “premature” declaration by Dutch lawyer Emile Vrijman to the effect Lance Armstrong did not use EPO in the 1999 Tour de France, as French newspaper L’Equipe had claimed last August.

The lawyer, Mr Emile Vrijman, was commissioned by the UCI last October to investigate L’Equipe’s claims. According to Dutch newspaper de Volkskrant, Vrijman concluded at the end of a 132-page report that “Lance Armstrong is absolutely extraneous to the accusations levelled against him regarding the use of doping products in the 1999 Tour de France.”

But this afternoon, the UCI reacted angrily to news of the report’s release while the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) reacted to its findings. In a statement, the UCI “deplored” the manner in which Vrijman’s conclusions were made public before the interested parties were informed. “Upon reception of the document, the UCI will study in detail the content before publishing it in its whole," the UCI said in a statement.

WADA president Dick Pound was critical for different reasons, casting doubt on the Vrijman’s expertise and his report, which Pound admitted that he had not yet read. "It's clearly everything we feared. There was no interest in determining whether the samples Armstrong provided were positive or not," Pound told The Associated Press by telephone from Montreal. "We were afraid of that from the very beginning."

[jakefrep]

1. Pardon the double entendre....

but Dick Pound is an ignorant wanker. I'm not sure that WADA's cause is well served by having such a spiteful twit in charge.