Although cyclist Lance Armstrong admitted to doping in a much-anticipated interview, he denied testing positive for illegal substances at the 2001 Tour of Switzerland and to paying the Swiss-based International Cycling Union (UCI) to cover it up.
Questions had swirled over whether a $125,000 (SFr117,000) donation Armstrong had made to the UCI was cover-up money to sweep a positive test for the illegal blood-boosting EPO hormone under the rug in 2001.
The test, which was conducted as part of the 2001 Tour of Switzerland by the Swiss Laboratory for Doping Analyses (LAD) in Lausanne, was alleged by some of Armstrong’s fellow cyclists to have been positive but covered up by both the testing lab and UCI officials.
“That story isn’t true,” Armstrong told talk show host Oprah Winfrey in the first of a two-part interview that aired on Thursday in the United States. “There was no positive test. No paying off of the lab. The UCI did not make that go away.”
The UCI did not respond to swissinfo.ch’s request for comment on Friday. However, its president said in a general statement to the media that “Lance Armstrong confirmed that there was no collusion or conspiracy between the UCI and (himself). No positive controls were covered up and he confirmed that donations to the UCI were intended to support the fight against doping.“
When pressed, Armstrong told Winfrey that he had made a donation to the UCI because he had heard the organisation “needed money”. However, he also said he was “no fan” of the UCI.
Last Friday, LAD director Martial Saugy denied giving Armstrong information about how to beat EPO tests in 2002, after the head of the US Anti-Doping Administration (USADA) accused him of doing so following the allegedly suspicious 2001 test.
Saugy said the USADA head had misinterpreted his response to a question and that the allegations against him were “nonsense”.
During the first part of his interview with Winfrey, Armstrong admitted to using cortisone, EPO, blood transfusions and testosterone to boost his performance at various points in his career between the mid-1990s and 2005. Armstrong was responding to accusations in a report by the USADA stating that he and his teammates had been part of one of the most sophisticated doping programmes in the history of the sport.