New details emerged Tuesday in the doping probe involving seven-time Tour de France champion Lance Armstrong — including claims he gained access to a drug that boosted his blood oxygen-carrying capacity but had less risks than the hormone erythropoietin, or EPO, a blood booster banned by the International Cycling Union.
A federal grand jury inquiry in Los Angeles is looking into whether Armstrong was involved in an organized doping operation while he was a member of the US Postal Service team between 1999 and 2004, during which time he won six Tours.
According to an investigation by Sports Illustrated, Armstrong gained access to the drug HemAssist during a clinical trial — but the Texan denies ever taking it.
In Australia competing in the Tour Down Under — his final international race — Armstrong, 39, was reluctant to comment when pressed Wednesday on the new claims.
"I don't have anything to say,'' he said when asked by AFP to respond to the report, before adding, "I've perused it. There's nothing there . . . I don't have anything to worry about on any level.''
Also in the report, disgraced former cyclist Floyd Landis — who was stripped of his 2006 Tour de France title for doping — claimed he was present when Armstrong had a travel bag searched by Spanish customs officials who found he was carrying syringes and drugs.
"Lance had a bag of drugs and s***," said Landis, adding Armstrong usually traveled on private charter flights and was rarely subjected to customs checks. "They wanted to search it, which was out of the ordinary."
According to the report, Landis said the officials let Armstrong through after the Texan and members of his traveling party convinced them that the drugs were vitamins and the syringes were needed to inject them.
Armstrong has denied the incident ever occurred.
When asked about Landis — who sparked the grand jury inquiry by accusing Armstrong of doping — Armstrong said Wednesday: "I have nothing to say about that either."
Further pressed he said: "Dude, are you that stupid? Which part of 'I'm not commenting' is not clear to you?'"
The wide-ranging report also claims Sports Illustrated reviewed a letter that stated Armstrong's testosterone-epitestosterone ratio came back higher than normal three times between 1993 and 1996, but the tests were dismissed by the UCLA lab of renowned anti-doping expert Don Catlin each time. The report also claimed to find an apparent reluctance by USOC officials to sanction athletes using performance-enhancing drugs.
And Stephen Swart — a New Zealand rider and former Armstrong teammate who has admitted to using EPO — described Armstrong to Sports Illustrated as the "instigator" who urged team members of the 1995 Motorola squad to use the blood booster.
"It was his words that pushed us toward doing it," the reported quoted Swart as saying.
Another of the report's revelations was that an Italian police raid on the home of longtime Armstrong teammate Yaroslav Popovych last November uncovered documentation and emails linking the American's U.S. Postal Service team with controversial Italian doctor Michele Ferrari as recently as 2009, despite Armstrong saying he had cut ties with him in 2004.
The grand jury probe is headed by Jeff Novitzky of the US Food and Drug Administration, who previously investigated baseball player Barry Bonds and track athlete Marion Jones.
