The claim that Lance Armstrong used performance-enhancing drugs has been endlessly recited in media exposes and confessional tell-alls from former teammates. The evidence, however, has never been put forth in any sort of formal way, as was going to happen publicly before the seven-time Tour de France winner announced he had stopped fighting the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency's allegations.
The agency is pressing forward and, according to a statement issued today by CEO Travis Tygart, will release more than 1,000 pages of documents he says prove not only that Armstrong took PEDs, but that his Postal Service team "ran the most sophisticated, professionalized and successful doping program that sport has ever seen."
Not just cycling history. It's the history of all sports he's talking about.
"The USPS Team doping conspiracy was professionally designed to groom and pressure athletes to use dangerous drugs, to evade detection, to ensure its secrecy and ultimately gain an unfair competitive advantage through superior doping practices," Tygart says in the statement. "A program organized by individuals who thought they were above the rules and who still play a major and active role in sport today."
Armstrong still says he never doped, but his denials have become increasingly hard to believe given the mounting evidence against him. The USADA says the files it will release include emails, financial payments, lab test results, and testimony from 26 people, including 11 former teammates like Floyd Landis, George Hincapie, and Tyler Hamilton.
According to the New York Times, Armstrong declined to comment.
