Armstrong Faces New Doping Charges

The United States Anti-Doping Agency is set to bring doping charges against Lance Armstrong that could lead to his being stripped of his seven Tour de France titles.

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Lance Armstrong will not face criminal charges but could be stripped of his seven Tour de France titles and barred from competing in triathlon events.

Armstrong, 40, called the charges “a witch hunt,” the same words he has used in the past when fighting off doping accusations that have followed him for more than a decade, including a two-year federal investigation into doping-related crimes that was dropped four months ago. This time the accuser is the antidoping agency, which does not have the power to bring criminal charges but does have the power to strip him of the accolades that helped make him a famous athlete.

If its charges are upheld, the agency — a quasi-governmental organization that oversees antidoping mostly in Olympic sports — also could levy a lifetime ban on him that would cover cycling and any other sports that are signatories to the World Anti-Doping Code.

The case has already led to Armstrong’s being suspended from competing in triathlons organized by the World Triathlon Corporation. He has focused on triathlons since retiring from cycling last year.

Another difference from the federal investigation is that the antidoping agency’s bar to charge and eventually punish Armstrong is not as high.

“It’s serious in the sense that they’ve got the ability to take away his title and ban him from future events,” said Robert D. Luskin, one of Armstrong’s lawyers. “Is it a process that is likely to lead to something that gives us some confidence that the allegations are true? Not for a second.”

Luskin said Armstrong was notified of the charges last week and was given a week to meet with the antidoping agency officials and give his version of the story. He declined because the agency would not listen to anything short of a confession, Luskin said. The agency said Armstrong was the only American rider contacted who declined to speak with it.

Armstrong, who had hoped to qualify for the Ironman World Championship in the fall, said that he had never doped and that the antidoping agency had a vendetta against him, fueled by malice.

“These charges are baseless, motivated by spite and paid for by promises of anonymity and immunity,” he said in a statement. On Twitter, he tagged his post about the charges with “#unconstitutional.”

The antidoping agency, in a letter obtained by The New York Times that was sent to Armstrong and five of his cycling colleagues on Tuesday, said that Armstrong and his associates were at the heart of systematic doping programs that began in the 1990s. The squads involved were the United States Postal Service team, the Discovery Channel team, the Astana team and the RadioShack team.

The letter, first reported by The Washington Post on Wednesday, said Armstrong used the blood-booster EPO, blood transfusions, testosterone, corticosteroids and masking agents. He also is charged with distributing and administering some of those doping agents, a violation of the World Anti-Doping Agency’s code that could result in a ban of four years or more.

Multiple riders will testify that Armstrong gave them, encouraged them or assisted them in using banned substances, the letter said. “The witnesses to the conduct described in this letter include more than 10 cyclists as well as cycling team employees,” the letter said.

The United States agency also said results from blood tests done on Armstrong in 2009 and 2010 by the International Cycling Union are “fully consistent with blood manipulation including EPO use and/or blood transfusions.”

The letter was also addressed to the team manager Johan Bruyneel, the team doctors Pedro Celaya and Luis Garcia del Moral, the consulting doctor Michele Ferrari and the team trainer Pepi Marti, who also face lifetime bans for being part of a doping conspiracy.

Considering that Armstrong has an army of high-powered lawyers, including those who worked with him during the federal inquiry, the antidoping agency is facing a steep climb. But Travis Tygart, chief executive of the agency, said it was ready.

“We do not choose whether or not we do our job based on outside pressures, intimidation or for any other reasons other than the evidence,” he said in a statement.

The agency likely has the help of those cyclists who cooperated with the federal investigation, including Floyd Landis, who was stripped of the 2006 Tour title for doping, and Tyler Hamilton, who admitted to being part of a doping scheme with Armstrong.

Armstrong still has not decided whether to fight the charges. “Lance has never shrunk from a fair fight, and we haven’t decided whether or not this process affords him a fair opportunity to meet the charges head on,” Luskin said. 

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