Troubling questions about probe into syringes linked to Armstrong's former team

PARIS - There is something fishy about France's latest probe into the former team of seven-time Tour de France champion Lance Armstrong.

Leaving no stones - or in this case, syringes - unturned in the battle against doping is commendable. Unless, of course, the investigation proves to be little more than a vendetta against the cyclist some French love to hate, convinced as they are that the cancer-survivor can only have triumphed through doping.

The facts: After this year's Tour, French police descended on a waste management firm, Cosmolys, that many teams use to dispose of their medical trash - bloody bandages, used sticking plasters, etc. The officers seized 15 containers, according to a French judicial official who was happy to brief reporters about the probe but not to be identified by name.

The officers went through the boxes. All of them checked out except one that the judicial official says was labeled as belonging to Armstrong's Astana team. The official says the box was stuffed with a "large quantity" of syringes and, most alarming, equipment for doing intravenous infusions. Under the World Anti-Doping Code, such IV drips are banned without a compelling medical need.

This paraphernalia is now being inspected by a laboratory, Toxlab, which also worked on the investigation into Princess Diana's death. It is looking at whether the syringes contained substances banned for athletes and, if so, whether blood specks on some needles can, through DNA analysis, be traced to riders.

Now for the troubling aspects.

The probe comes amid a public dispute between the UCI, which governs world cycling, and France's anti-doping agency, known by its French initials AFLD.

Ideally, they should be partners. But they don't trust each other. Officials at the AFLD suspect the UCI isn't doing everything it could against doping. In a 10-page report to the UCI that leaked to French media, the agency this month accused the cycling body of messing up drug tests at this year's Tour. Perhaps most damagingly, it claimed that the UCI's testers granted "privileged treatment" to Astana, which Tour champion Alberto Contador also rides for.

The view at the UCI is that AFLD officials are unreliable publicity hounds. To rid cycling of its drug-tainted image, the UCI has spent a small fortune building one of the most sophisticated anti-doping programs in sports. It rejoiced that, for the first time in years, no rider tested positive at this year's Tour. It is miffed at AFLD suggestions that its efforts are still full of holes.

The syringe probe could work in AFLD's favour by giving an impression that there may have been nefarious goings-on at the Tour that the UCI missed or ignored.

But what prompted police to search the bins in the first place? Did they have legitimate reasons or are they being manipulated by people seeking to embarrass Armstrong and the UCI? Would they have gone to such lengths with other sports? They are refusing to comment on this case.

"We never hear of police going through the bins at Roland Garros or after a football match," notes Gerard Guillaume, a doctor for French team Francaise des Jeux.

What is clear is that the probe was kept quiet for three months until last week, when word leaked to French media just before Armstrong flew to Paris for the unveiling of next year's Tour route. The timing took some shine off the ceremony. Armstrong and Contador faced questions.

"I'm confident that our team has been racing clean," Armstrong said.

"I'm absolutely relaxed," Contador added.

Even if one assumes that someone at Astana cheated, it's difficult to believe they would throw the evidence in the trash. Doctors from other teams say Cosmolys' waste containers aren't sealed, so anyone could conceivably stuff them with needles to tarnish Astana. There also are legitimate reasons why a team might need syringes - for vitamin injections, for instance.

That doesn't mean police shouldn't investigate. Intravenous equipment found in 2007 in a bin in Lucerne, Switzerland, was traced through DNA analysis to eight Russian rowers who were banned for two years. Police will deserve applause if their doggedness turns up Tour cheats.

But if Astana is exonerated, will the same people who put Armstrong and cycling in the spotlight by leaking word on the probe say sorry?

Don't count on it.

-

John Leicester is an international sports columnist for The Associated Press. Write to him at jleicester(at)ap.org