USA/FILE: CYCLING - Lance Armstrong's Lawyer Tim Herman says the USADA report on Armstrong is heavily biased and looks to the UCI for more favorable treatment for his client

Record ID: 752286

  • Title: USA/FILE: CYCLING - Lance Armstrong's Lawyer Tim Herman says the USADA report on Armstrong is heavily biased and looks to the UCI for more favorable treatment for his client
  • Date: 12th October 2012
  • Summary: AUSTIN, TEXAS, UNITED STATES. (OCTOBER 11, 2012) (REUTERS) LANCE ARMSTRONG'S LAWYER TIM HERMAN WALKING DOWN HALLWAY (SOUNDBITE) (English) LANCE ARMSTRONG'S LAWYER TIM HERMAN SAYING: "If any of those riders, either teammates or competitors were given an opportunity they would say that Lance Armstrong was maybe one of the two or three most gifted athletes of our generati
  • Embargoed: 27th October 2012 13:00
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  • Location: Usa
  • Country: USA
  • Topics: Crime,Sports
  • Reuters ID: LVA21PEPWHIBLOLI0JFMROM9QZVC
  • Story Text: Lance Armstrong's attorney Tim Herman condemed the bias of the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency's findings in the cyclists's doping case and is hoping for a more even playing field when the case reaches the International Union of Cyclists (UCI)
    "While USADA has gone back 17 years, we are confident that the UCI will review this matter and apply the statute of limitations the way that it was written and the way that it is supposed to be applied and what they do with the allegations, let's say from 2004 forward, we don't know but hopefully they will assert their jurisdiction," Herman said.
    The 41-year-old Armstrong, who won the Tour de France seven times after surviving cancer, was accused of being part of the "the most sophisticated, professionalised and successful doping programme that sport has ever seen" by the United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA).
    USADA has banned Armstrong for life and stripped him of his Tour de France titles and on Wednesday it published the findings of an investigation into the Texan and his U.S. Postal Service Pro Cycling Team.
    "There is no way we would have ever gone into a USADA arbitration because of the patent unfairness of their process and the fact that athletes never, ever prevail and that's largely the function of unfair process, the limitation of USADA approved arbitrators and the numerous other deficiencies of the process that deprives athletes of the same rights that every other citizen has," Herman added.
    Canadian Michael Barry, one of 11 former Armstrong team-mates who testified in the case, supplied USADA with a 16-page affidavit that detailed his participartion in the U.S. Postal Team doping program. Barry told investigators he found used drug paraphernalia in a teammate's apartment then approached team doctors for drugs after a series of poor race results. Barry insists, however, he never personally saw Armstrong use drugs.
    "Wasn't until I joined the US Postal that I really started to see just how bad the doping problem was in professional cycling and it wasn't a problem that was unique to the team," Barry told the CBC via Skype.
    Matt Hansen, another professional cyclist from Canada who rode in competition with Armstrong is not surprised by the latest scandal to hit the sport.
    "We all kind of knew this was coming and it's just building and building and building and you know whispers became chatting and chatting became yelling and they've proclaimed that this is real," Hensen said on Thursday in Toronto.
    Five American cyclists who testified against Lance Armstrong have all been formally banned for six months after confessing to using performance enhancing drugs, USA Cycling said on Thursday.
    Tom Danielson, George Hincapie, Levi Leipheimer, Christian Vande Velde and David Zabriskie all agreed to serve six-month suspensions as part of a plea bargain to provide sworn testimony to the United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA).
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