http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/more_sport/cycling/article4866280.eceLance Armstrong will not allow the French anti-doping agency (AFLD) to retest six urine samples taken from his first Tour de France victory in 1999.
Pierre Bordry, president of AFLD, had offered the seven times Tour de France champion the chance to counter allegations of blood doping with a new analysis of the samples taken from the 1999 Tour. With Armstrong set to make a comeback in 2009 after three years away from the peloton, Bordry felt such a move would give the seven-time Tour winner "a chance to confirm that he never cheated in his brilliant career".
But Armstrong will not agree to the AFLD's request, insisting the matter has already been dealt with.
"He is not interested in discussing again results from samples taken in 1999," Mark Higgins, Armstrong's media spokesman, told L’Équipe, the French daily sports newspaper. "I will refer the AFLD or whoever will ask the questions on this subject to the Vrijman report."
The report in question was published by Emile Vrijman, a Dutch lawyer, in 2006. It cleared Armstrong of doping in the 1999 Tour and accused anti-doping authorities of misconduct in dealing with the American. His urine samples from the 1999 Tour are frozen in a drug-testing laboratory just outside Paris.
Shortly after Armstrong retired from racing in July 2005, L’Équipe alleged that traces of EPO, the artificial blood booster, had been identified in samples taken from him in 1999 and subsequently tested in 2005 once a new EPO test had been validated. The allegations brought widespread condemnation of Armstrong in France, with Jean-Marie Leblanc, the Tour director at the time, speaking of a “betrayal” by the Texan.
Armstrong has always denied allegations of doping and has never tested positive.
When announcing his return to racing last month, he said: “We’re going to be completely transparent and open. This is for the world to see.”
