Spanish doctor denies helping Armstrong

A Spanish doctor who worked with disgraced cyclist Lance Armstrong’s US Postal Service team on Wednesday denied being part of a doping network, after he was banned for life by the US Anti-Doping Agency. Luis Garcia Del Moral, who worked with the cycling team between 1999 and 2003, has been accused of helped the shamed rider and his team-mates to take banned substances.
The doctor said in a statement that he played no part in any doping network and “never incited the use of doping substances” during his time with the team.
“During my years as doctor for US Postal, I never witnessed organised doping in the team nor incited it personally,” he said. “As a doctor, my actions were to maintain the health of cyclists and oversee their physical performance.”
Garcia Del Moral went on to say that he was first contacted by USADA in June 2012 to respond to the claims of several witnesses, including former US Postal Service riders. He said that the USADA recommended that he gave evidence against Armstrong and if he did so no action would be taken against him for his role. Armstrong – one of cycling’s most recognisable figures — was this week banned for life and stripped of his seven Tour de France victories plus career record back to 1998 for doping, plunging the sport into crisis. Garcia Del Moral denied the accusations against him and rejected the chance to defend himself before the USADA, leading to him being banned for life. He is disputing the decision on the grounds that he had never seen the agency’s complete report on “the Armstrong system”. The Spanish anti-doping agency on October 12 raised the possibility of court action against Garcia Del Moral, another Spanish doctor and a former trainer over claims that illegal doping activities took place in the country.
Cycling looks to the future after Armstrong affair: Cycling on Wednesday sought to move on from the Lance Armstrong doping scandal as leading riders urged fans not to give up on the sport and Tour de France organisers unveiled the race route for its historic 100th edition. Two days after world cycling authorities wiped clean Armstrong’s results back to August 1998, including his record seven Tour wins from 1999 to 2005, details of a gruelling 3,360km course were announced of the race the disgraced US rider dominated. Next year’s Tour, which starts for the first time on the Mediterranean island of Corsica, includes a twin climb of the monster Alpe d’Huez and an unprecedented sunset finish on the sweeping Champs Elysees boulevard in Paris. The glitzy presentation of the race, however, was dominated by the fall-out from the Armstrong scandal that has left cycling in a fight to save its reputation and future from a doping-scarred past.
Race director Christian Prudhomme, who is against re-awarding Armstrong’s Tour titles and is seeking the repayment of the rider’s nearly 2.95 million euros ($3.8 million) in winnings, said cycling needed a “real cultural shift” to move forward. He urged professional teams to join the “clean cycling” union the MPCC (Mouvement Pour un Cyclisme Credible), which has strict rules over the use of banned substances.
“The only way in which to change the culture (in cycling) is to apply draconian rules such as those that members of the MPCC apply,” he told reporters.
“Doping is the enemy, not cycling and even less so the Tour.” Prudhomme’s call indicates a growing recognition that cycling needs to change, given the damage inflicted by the Armstrong affair and questions about the credibility of the sport’s authorities and their handling of the scandal.
The International Cycling Union (UCI) is due to meet on Friday to discuss the next steps after its president described the Armstrong affair as sport’s “biggest crisis” ever and led to one major sponsor pull out, calling the sport “sick” to its core.
But current riders, including 2011 winner Cadel Evans and this year’s champion Bradley Wiggins, both said that despite the headlines created by Armstrong, cycling had made great strides to clean up its act. Wiggins, the first British rider to win the Tour, said he was angered by the revelations and because the actions of Armstrong and other riders had cast doubt over their achievements. “We’re the ones picking up the pieces and having to convince people that the sport is clean — and it’s difficult to convince some people, it really is, because of a precedent that has been set,” he said.