and [censored] Pound was correst
Official Statement
When they met at the Olympic Winter Games in Torino, WADA's Chairman
[censored] Pound told UCI's Vice-President Hein Verbruggen that WADA had in its
possession copies of the 15 doping control forms signed by Lance Armstrong
during the 1999 Tour de France and that those copies originated from the
UCI.
The UCI has immediately carried out an internal investigation and
found to its disappointment that this information appears to be correct. The
UCI had previously made public statements that only a photocopy of one form
had been given to Mr. Ressiot from L'Equipe based upon the assurances of the
staff member concerned.
In July 2005 Damien Ressiot from L'Equipe informed UCI that he
wanted to write an article on Lance Armstrong confirming that since his
return to competition in 1999, he had never taken any medicine in relation
with possible consequences of the cancer he had overcome. It was agreed with
Mr. Armstrong that Mr. Ressiot could come and see the doping control forms
at the UCI office and ascertain for himself that no such medication had been
mentioned on the forms by Mr. Armstrong. While at the UCI office Mr. Ressiot
asked for and was authorized to have a copy of one doping control form as an
example, in order to prove to his readers that he had effectively had
consulted the forms.
However, Mr. Ressiot's article of 23 August in L'Equipe was about
the confidential report of the anti-doping laboratory of Paris containing
results of research conducted on 1999 Tour de France samples. The laboratory
had sent this confidential report the day before to WADA and the French
Ministry of Sports. Oddly enough, and notwithstanding the condition set by
the French laboratory that it could not be used for disciplinary purposes,
this research report contained the original codes of the samples collected
back in 1999.
Mr. Ressiot got a copy of this confidential report and published it
in L'Equipe with six doping control forms signed by Lance Armstrong. He
linked the forms to the code numbers contained in the report. At the same
time he published three pages of comments and related articles, including a
small article on Mr. Armstrong's medication. He wrote that he had been
working on this publication for four months.
It is evident to the UCI that Mr. Ressiot had used a dishonest
pretext in order to accessing the doping control forms of Mr. Armstrong
which were in the possession of the UCI.
However, based upon the assurances of the staff member concerned,
UCI made public statements that only a photocopy of one form had been given
to Mr. Ressiot. Mr. Ressiot refused to say where he got the other forms
from, invoking the confidentiality of his sources (which did not prevent him
from revealing his source to others and distributing copies of these
documents also to third parties).
The internal investigation of the UCI has indeed resulted in the
fact that the staff member concerned has now admitted that he must have
given to Mr. Ressiot a copy of all 15 forms, instead of just one.
It is to be emphasized that this was done in the absolute conviction
that Mr. Ressiot was indeed doing his inquiry for the purpose of writing an
article proving that Mr. Armstong never asked for an authorization to use
any drugs after he successfully fought his cancer.
The UCI also underlines that the UCI management was not aware until
now that more than one copy of a doping control form had been given to Mr.
Ressiot and that the statements of the UCI after the publication in L'Equipe
reflected the information that it had at that time.
The UCI regrets that it was not correctly informed as from the
beginning and apologizes for any misunderstanding to the public. However it
also regrets the dubious practices used by certain journalists. For its part
UCI has immediately taken the appropriate internal measures.
For the rest the UCI awaits the results of the independent
investigation on the doping allegations against Lance Armstrong.