Armstrong's anti-doping testing programme pending
UCLA doping expert Don Catlin (L) with Lance Armstrong and Taylor Phinney in Las Vegas September 25. (Jonathan Devich/Epicimages.us)
Lance Armstrong's personal anti-doping controls with expert Don Catlin have not yet started. The American and seven-time Tour de France champion expects to have the programme in place with the results online by the time he starts the Tour Down Under in January.
"It's a tough thing to organize, but we will make it happen. All the stuff we said we were going to do will happen," Armstrong said in an interview with the Associated Press this weekend.
When he announced in September that he would ride for Team Astana in the coming season, Armstrong said that Doctor Don Catlin would run a personal programme for him. Catlin founded the University of California, Los Angeles, anti-doping laboratory and is now CEO of Anti-Doping Research Inc. The cyclist explained that he would be available "whenever and wherever" for testing purposes and that Catlin would post all results the internet.
Catlin acknowledged that he has not yet tested Armstrong and that there is not yet any signed agreement to place the results online. "We're interested in getting it going," Catlin said. "We have been chatting and are in negotiations."
According to Armstrong, he only received the testing proposal two weeks ago, and it has been difficult to find the time to organise all the planning and testing. "We're working as quickly as we can to get everyone coordinated, but it's not that simple," Catlin said.
"The programme we want to do is going to be intensive. And he's a moving target. He's very busy. Keeping up with him, testing him, takes a lot of planning and it hasn't all come together yet."
Armstrong is currently attending his first training camp with Team Astana on the Spanish island of Tenerife.
User Comments
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antmills
Posted Tue 2 Dec, 1:21 pm UTC Flag as inappropriate
If Armstrong truely wanted to silence his critics, this would have been the first thing he'd got in place, before even saying that he was attempting a (naive and ultimately doomed) comeback.
I have serious doubts about his "cleanliness" and find his metronomic responses to any questions or suspicious incidents regarding his past extremely unsatisfactory and unconvincing.
Here was his chance to jump ahead of the doubters and show them his bio results on the web, BEFORE even mentioning trying to get back into cycling.
As far as I'm concerned, he has blown his only chance of a welcome comeback. I want to see clean AND fully monitored cyclists out there racing. Not the rubbish from the past. New CLEAN stars will become the fans' favourites of the future and they will very quickly fill any false vacuum left by people such as Armstrong and Pantani.
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PortPerryCycling
Posted Thu 11 Dec, 1:40 pm UTC Flag as inappropriate
Garmin and Columbia have hired Don Catlin to handle their team testing as well so I am sure many others have approached him as well. Both Catlin and Armstrong are admitting getting the timing and testing scheduled is the issue......Again, two major teams hiring Catlin to handle their entire teams tests, and then Lance Armstrong testing with Astana, staying fully engaged in his Livestrong organization, while also spending as much time as possible with his family......Not once has Armstrong been proven guilty of doping (not once) and yet he is already guilty by.....get this.....human beings that apparently love cycling enough to follow it on sites such as this. Until he is proven guilty he remains one of the best cyclists of all time (in my opinion the BEST, but I did not get to follow Meryx, Hinault and the rest that are in the "one of the best ever" category so I will leave it he is the best to ever to me) and aside from cycling his life focus to drive awareness to cancer survival makes him an incredible human being!
Put Lance Armstrong aside for a minute as I know everyone has their own opinion, but what I don't get is why so many cycling enthusiasts are driven to follow and respond and give ludicris opinions on the subject of doping?!?! Let the agencies and tours run their doping programs and catch those that cheat.....rather than dwelling on it and feeling a commment must be made to drive the focus to a black mark on the sport, just focus on the good of cycling which I feel is the greatest and toughest activity/sport in the world....
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