With Lance Armstrong digging in for a legal fight, the US Anti-Doping Agency issued lifetime sports bans on Tuesday to three former staff members and consultants on the cyclist’s winning Tour de France teams for drug violations.
Luis Garcia del Moral was a team doctor; Michele Ferrari was a consulting doctor; and Jose “Pepe” Marti (team trainer) worked for Armstrong’s US Postal Service and Discovery Channel squads. All had been accused by the USADA of participating in a vast doping conspiracy on those teams during part or all of Armstrong’s seven Tour victories from 1999 to 2005.
Armstrong has also been charged and has declared his innocence.
Photo: EPA
Several hours after the agency announced its sanctions against the others, Armstrong’s attorneys refiled a lawsuit asking a federal judge in Austin to prevent the case against him from going forward.
US District Judge Sam Sparks had thrown out Armstrong’s initial 80-page complaint on Monday, but invited him to submit a new one that was shorter, more to the point and less about his career and personal battles with anti-doping officials.
Armstrong’s attorneys refiled a 25-page suit arguing that the USADA violates athletes’ constitutional rights, that the agency does not have the jurisdiction to bring the charges and that it may have violated federal law in its investigation.
Armstrong wants the court to rule by Saturday, his deadline to either accept the agency’s charges and sanctions or send his case to arbitration.
An Armstrong spokesman declined immediate comment on the USADA bans issued on Tuesday.
Under USADA rules, Moral, Marti and Ferrari had until Monday to challenge the allegations against them in arbitration or ask for a five-day extension. If they did not respond, the agency could impose sanctions.
Although none lives in the US, the USADA says the ban blocks them from participating in any sport that falls under the World Anti-Doping Agency code.
“The respondents chose not to waste resources by moving forward with the arbitration process, which would only reveal what they already know to be the truth of their doping activity,” USADA chief executive Travis Tygart said.
There has been no indication from the agency that any of the three men — who each received the agency’s maximum punishment — is cooperating with investigators.
Armstrong was granted his extension while he files his court case. Also charged and granted an extension was Armstrong’s former team manager, Johan Bruyneel.
Another team doctor, Pedro Celaya, has also been charged and faced the same Monday deadline. A USADA spokeswoman declined to say if Celaya asked for an extension or for his case to go to arbitration.
The USADA filed the charges against Armstrong and the others last month, laying out what it calls a vast doping conspiracy on Armstrong’s teams when he was winning the Tour de France from 1999 to 2005.
Moral, who lives in Spain, was the team physician from 1999 to 2003. According to the agency, he helped riders use banned blood transfusion techniques to help boost endurance. He also helped them use banned performance-enhancing drugs, including the blood-booster EPO and steroids.
Moral could not immediately be reached for comment by telephone or e-mail.
Ferrari, who lives in Italy, was a consulting doctor for Armstrong and the US Postal Service and Discovery Channel teams from 1999 to 2006, according to USADA. USADA said Ferrari developed a special mixture of testosterone and olive oil to be placed under the tongue to help riders recover from races and training. He also advised riders how to use EPO and avoid detection.
Ferrari’s lawyer could not be immediately reached for comment and there was no answer at Ferrari’s home. The doctor has already been banned for life by the Italian cycling federation in 2002.
Marti, of Spain, who worked for the US Postal Service, Discovery from 1999 to 2007 and then Astana, helped deliver performance-enhancing drugs to riders in Europe and helped with injections, the USADA said.
“Permanently banning these individuals from sport is a powerful statement that protects the current and next generation of athletes from their influence, and preserves the integrity of future competition,” Tygart said.
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