Word: armstrong
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Tour de France Is Landis the next Armstrong? U.S. cyclist Floyd Landis powered through the Pyrenees last week, emerging with the Tour leader's yellow jersey. But his arthritic hip and the arduous Alps stand between him and a top-of-the-podium finish in Paris on July...
Critics, particularly in France, have long accused Armstrong, a cancer survivor, of needing drugs to win his titles. Adding fuel to that fire is recent testimony from an ex-teammate and his wife, first reported in the French newspaper Le Monde. Nearly a decade ago, three days after doctors removed two cancerous lesions from his brain, Armstrong relaxed in an Indiana hospital room with a group of close friends. It was there, says Betsy Andreu, then the fiancé of one of Armstrong's cycling teammates, that the future cycling giant admitted to being juiced. According to Andreu's testimony from...
...Armstrong has repeatedly denied using performance-enhancing drugs. And he has never failed a drug test. He called Andreu's allegationwhich her husband, former Armstrong teammate Frankie Andreu, backed in a separate deposition"absurd and untrue." (Betsy Andreu told TIME she stands by "every single, solitary word" of her testimony.) Armstrong ultimately won the arbitration, receiving another $2.5 million on top of the $5 million SCA owed him. Armstrong's oncologist, Dr. Craig Nichols, said in an affidavit, "I would have recorded such a confession as a matter of form, as indeed would have my colleagues. None was recorded...
...Besides Armstrong's legacy, Tour organizers are coping with a fresh drug scandal. A Spanish doping investigation resulted in three prerace favorites--Italy's Ivan Basso, Germany's Jan Ullrich and Spain's Francisco Mancebo, who finished second, third and fourth, respectively, behind Armstrong in the 2005 Tour--being forced out of the race the day before its start. The French newspaper L'Equipe called it a "decapitation." Says Daniel Baal, former president of the French Cycling Federation: "The credibility of the Tour has been called into question." It's certainly the most damaging crisis to hit the race since...
That leaves the Tour de France field, already wide open in the wake of Armstrong's retirement, an even wilder mishmash. Asked shortly before the race began about his improving prospects, American Floyd Landis just sighs. "Jesus," says Landis, "I have to wait to know who's here--which is sad to say, because [the race] starts in about 24 hours." It could be the Tour's roughest ride...