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Lance Armstrong gets 30 day USADA extension… Johan Bruyneel doesn't

USADA gives Armstrong 30 extra days to accept sanctions or arbitration, Bruyneel has until Saturday

USADA has granted Lance Armstrong a 30 day extension to the deadline it had set for him to either accept sanctions or enter in to a process of arbitration over what USADA has described as "a massive doping conspiracy". 

Interestingly although USADA had combined the cases against Armstrong and former USPS, Astana, and current RadioShack Nissant Trek team boss Johan Bruyneel no such extension has been granted to the Belgian. Bruyneel therefore still has until Saturday to accept USADA's sanctions or enter in to a process of arbitration - any sanctions are very likely to include a lifetime ban from involvement in cycling and all other sports signed up to the World Anti-Doping Authority's code. Bruyneel has yet to comment.

On Tuesday the three other men named by USADA along with Armstrong and Bruyneel as being part of a doping conspiracy spanning 16 years were given lifetime bans as they elected not to contest the charges.

Earlier today Armstrong's lawyers re-filed a slimmed down version of the 80 page submission that was thrown out by a Texan Court on Monday for being amongst other things too long. Among a number of stinging criticisms of the original suit the judge also instructed that if the lawsuit was re-filed it must “omit any improper argument, rhetoric, or irrelevant material,”

Armstrong's legal team argue that the USADA violates athlete's constitutional rights, that the alleged doping violations occurred outside the agency's jurisdiction, and that the agency and its boss Travis Tygart violated federal law in gathering its evidence against Armstrong. Armstrong's lawyers were also seeking a restraining order against USADA to stop it enforcing the Saturday deadline - as a result of the extension being granted that has been withdrawn.

While the granting of the extension might be seen as a sign of weakness from USADA, the organisation's chief executive remains supremely confident that Armstrong's lawsuit will fail.

Looked at from another direction three legs of this particular 5-legged piece of furniture are gone, on Saturday another may well fall which then leaves only Armstrong fighting on. His chances of victory seem remote and will be remoter still if Bruyneel accepts the USADA sanctions. Indeed were Armstrong to win it seems likely that it would not be on the substance of the case against him but on the procedural basis that the USADA's writ did not run in Europe - hardly a vindication.

road.cc's founder and first editor, nowadays to be found riding a spreadsheet. Tony's journey in cycling media started in 1997 as production editor and then deputy editor of Total Bike, acting editor of Total Mountain Bike and then seven years as editor of Cycling Plus. He launched his first cycling website - the Cycling Plus Forum at the turn of the century. In 2006 he left C+ to head up the launch team for Bike Radar which he edited until 2008, when he co-launched the multi-award winning road.cc - finally handing on the reins in 2021 to Jack Sexty. His favourite ride is his ‘commute’ - which he does most days inc weekends and he’s been cycle-commuting since 1994. His favourite bikes are titanium and have disc brakes, though he'd like to own a carbon bike one day.

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Lungsofa74yearold | 11 years ago
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Good point Simon - I seem to remember Bernard Kohl saying that he had been at it big style for a long time before he got caught. For most of LA's career the testing wasn't very good I.e. therewere probably lots of suspicious results, but not something that would stand up in court, particularly given LA's capacity to hire expensive lawyers which far out stripped that of the authorities.

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Simon_MacMichael | 11 years ago
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GetPedalPowered said: "The two athlete's above FAILED tests, like Lance says he's never failed a test so I think in the end this will fail as well."

Part of USADA's case is that he *did* fail a test for EPO on the 2001 Tour de Suisse and that it was covered up with the help of the UCI.

Alejandro Valverde, David Millar, Ivan Basso, to name just three high profile riders who have served doping bans - none of them ever tested positive, either.

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GetPedalPowered | 11 years ago
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My understanding is the 3 already banned no longer hold licenses for cycling and therefore the USADA lifetime ban is only symbolic
& with Lance being given a further 30 days, USADA's case is crumbling & the other issues within USADA, the female footballer Hope Solo's case was kept under wraps entirely until it was resolved, over medication, then today we get the news of Debbie Dunn's failed test & the full publicity of that.
Do I respect Lance as a person not really, do I respect him as an athlete and somebody whom has has battled adversity absolutely.
USADA only have previously tested blood samples that were checked in WADA/UCI/USADA accredited labs.
The two athlete's above FAILED tests, like Lance says he's never failed a test so I think in the end this will fail as well.

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notfastenough | 11 years ago
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Certainly looks like a precarious position for Lance if all his co-accused cave in. "So the coaches and doctors have admitted to running a doping ring, but their star rider says he's done nothing wrong - who do you suppose they were doing it for then?!"

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