UCI hits back at WADA over Armstrong report
UCI hits back at WADA over Armstrong report
by Peter Capella
June 3, 2006
GENEVA (AFP) - The international cycling union (UCI) has hit
back at the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) amid open hostilities over a
probe clearing US cyclist Lance Armstrong of 1999 Tour de France doping
allegations.
In a statement, the UCI called on WADA to clarify if it had put
pressure on a French laboratory to take steps that would have enabled the
identification of athletes in subsequent research on doping samples.
Moves to bypass confidentiality and conduct research without an
athlete's consent would have violated the World Anti-Doping Code, it added.
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"WADA should not be allowed to divert the attention on side
issues, but asked publicly to answer the many pertinent questions in the
Vrijman report," the UCI said Saturday.
WADA chief [censored] Pound on Friday ripped apart the investigation
report by Dutch attorney Emile Vrijman, saying it was farcical and was not
objective.
Vrijman was appointed by the UCI last October to investigate the
credibility of reports by the French newspaper L'Equipe claiming Armstrong
used improper substances in 1999.
The newspaper said urine tests purportedly from Armstrong tested
positive for EPO after tests that were not available in 1999 were applied to
the sample.
Armstrong steadfastly denied any wrongdoing and Vrijman's
132-page report backed him, suggesting a tribunal to consider alleged legal
and ethical wrongdoing by WADA, Pound, and a French anti-doping laboratory.
The UCI on Saturday also targeted criticism in L'Equipe, raising
questions about possible collusion with WADA in its articles on the
Armstrong doping tests.
WADA said the investigation report appeared to be defamatory and
that it had taken legal advice on possible recourse "against the
investigator and any organization, including UCI, that may publicly adopt
its conclusions."
Armstrong, who has retired after a record seven consecutive Tour
de France triumphs, has praised Vrijman's report. The former cyclist accused
Pound of involvement in a "witch hunt" against him.
The UCI and WADA were already at loggerheads when the World
Anti-Doping Code was drawn up, and over its subsequent application in
cycling.
But their relations have reached an unprecedented degree of
acrimony less than two months after Pound and the UCI's new chief Pat
MacQuaid held a "constructive and helpful" meeting in Switzerland.