Tour Boss Jean-Marie Leblanc

Jean-Marie Leblanc, Director of the Tour de France is now saying that there is “compelling scientific evidence” that Lance Armstrong used performance-enhancing drugs in winning the 1999 Tour and says the seven-time champion owes cycling fans an explanation.

“For the first time — and these are no longer rumors or insinuations, these are proven scientific facts — someone has shown me that in 1999, Armstrong had a banned substance called EPO in his body,” Leblanc told the paper.

“The ball is now in his camp. Why, how, by whom? He owes explanations to us and to everyone who follows the Tour,” Leblanc said. “What L’Equipe revealed shows me that I was fooled. We were all fooled.”

L’Equipe reported that six urine samples provided by the cancer-surviving American during the 1999 Tour tested positive for the red blood cell-booster EPO. The drug, formally known as erythropoietin, was on the list of banned substances at the time, but there was no effective test to detect it.

The allegations surfaced six years later because EPO tests on the 1999 samples were carried out only last year when scientists at a lab outside Paris used them for research to perfect EPO testing. The national anti-doping laboratory in Chatenay-Malabry said it promised to hand over its finding to WADA (the World Anti-Doping Agency), provided it was never used to penalize riders.

EPO (Erythropoietin) was banned by the UCI in 1990 but a reliable test wasn’t developed until 2001. Up until the 2000 Olympics, it had been impossible to detect the drug, which builds endurance by boosting the production of oxygen-rich red blood cells.

So what does all this mean? Well, this is pretty damn serious even if Lance has retired. As I stated before, finding out Lance used EPO during his Tour reign would be absolutely devastating to cycling and probably cancer survivor groups worldwide. To be honest, the happenings of this week haven’t change my feelings on his victories- I’m suspicious but I think he won cleanly. It’s disappointing that the Tour De France organization would come to such a hasty conclusion. I’m for once glad I’m not living the life of Lance.