Armstrong's U.S. Postal team in French doping probe

The investigation was opened Wednesday evening, against unknown persons, following a month-long police inquiry provoked by an anonymous letter sent to the state prosecutor claiming television reporters had observed suspicious behaviour in a U.S. Postal team car during this year's Tour, won by Armstrong. The newspaper Le Monde had reported November 8 that a team of reporters from the France 3 TV network, which covered the Tour, had repeatedly observed two men loading plastic bags filled with compresses, swabs and packages of medicines into a car with German license plates.

On November 9, the investigative weekly Le Canard Enchaine wrote that U.S. Postal riders allegedly used calf's blood extracts, which have a similar effect on endurance as the banned hormone EPO, and the Norwegian drug actovegin, which increases circulation and is currently not forbidden. Armstrong, who recovered from malignant cancer to win the last two runnings of the Tour de France, has repeatedly refuted allegations of doping. However, during the 1999 Tour he tested positive for traces of corticosteroids, which are banned without a medical prescription. At the time, Armstrong said he had unwittingly used a skin cream that contained the substance. In addition, during the Festina team doping trial in the city of Lille, currently awaiting a judge's decision, former Festina trainer Antoine Vayer suggested Armstrong's astonishing performance in the mountains during the Tour was suspicious.

Vayer testified that Armstrong gradually grew stronger the higher he climbed. "Humanly and physiologically, that is not possible," Vayer declared.

(dpa)