The timing took some shine off the ceremony. Armstrong and Contador faced questions.
“I’m confident that our team has been racing clean,” Armstrong said.
“I’m absolutely relaxed,” Contador added.
Even if one assumes that someone at Astana cheated, it’s difficult to believe they would throw the evidence in the trash.
Doctors from other teams say Cosmolys’ waste containers aren’t sealed, so anyone could conceivably stuff them with needles to tarnish Astana. There also are legitimate reasons why a team might need syringes — for vitamin injections, for instance.
That doesn’t mean police shouldn’t investigate. Intravenous equipment found in 2007 in a garbage receptacle in Lucerne, Switzerland, was traced through DNA analysis to eight Russian rowers who were banned for two years.
But if Astana is exonerated, will the same people who put Armstrong and cycling in the spotlight by leaking word on the probe apologize?
Don’t count on it.
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