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Lance Armstrong cleared

The Associated Press and other media outlets are reporting that independent Dutch investigators have exonerated Lance Armstrong of doping during the 1999 Tour de France, and blamed anti-doping authorities for misconduct in dealing with the American cyclist.

A 132-page report releasd Wednesday recommended convening a tribunal to discuss possible legal and ethical violations by the authorities and to consider "appropriate sanctions to remedy the violations" and deter future misconduct.

Dutch lawyer Emile Vrijman, who headed the Dutch anti-doping agency for 10 years and later defended athletes accused of doping, said Wednesday that his report "exonerates Lance Armstrong completely with respect to alleged use of doping in the 1999 Tour de France".

The International Cycling Union and the World Anti-Doping Agency both criticized Vrijman for making the report public.

"The World Anti-Doping Agency expresses grave concern and strong disappointment," said an official WADA statement to the BBC.

"Wada is not in a position to comment at this time other than to state that elementary courtesy and professionalism would have dictated that WADA should have been provided with a copy of the report before interviews were given to the media."

I find WADA's response disengenuous, given that people within WADA or France's anti-doping agency were responsible for leaking test results that led to the report by France's L'equipe sports newspaper account that Armstrong had tested positively for doping.

It just goes to show what goes around comes around.

By the way, I've added a feed to stories that appear on Google News about Lance Armstrong in the right column of cycling news feeds. Check them out!

Roger 0 comments 2:34 PM