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PAGE 8: PAGE 8 NEWSFLASH: ARMSTRONG DRUG TESTING PROGRAM DEFERRED
Road Bike Action
February 11, 2009
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In a news story published today in the NY Times, Dr. Don Catlin told
reporter Juliet Macur that Armstrong and Catlin could not reach a
consensus on how to implement the independent anti-doping
program that the seven-time Tour De France winner had announced as an
integral part of his comeback last September.
Catlin told the NY Times
that he had never obtained a single full blood and urine sample from
Armstrong and that the ambitious personalized anti-doping program was
simply too complex and too costly to implement. Catlin also said the
decision to terminate the program was mutual. “In the real world, when
you try to implement a program as grandiose as what you had in mind, it
just becomes so complicated that it’s better not to try,” Catlin told
the NY Times, adding that a contract with Armstrong had never been
signed. “We’re all disappointed, but it’s just not going to be
possible.”
Armstrong is still subject to other anti-doping testing from the
International Cycling Union, United States Anti-Doping Agency, World
Anti-Doping Agency and the internal anti-doping program from his pro
cycling team Astana. According to the NY Times, Catlin said he and
Armstrong’s representatives had been trying to come to an agreement to
implement the program, but the closer the season came, the harder it
was to solidify the details. Slowly, the comprehensive program, which
Armstrong had touted as “the most advanced anti-doping program in the
world," was being watered down because of logistical problems and cost
restrictions.
Armstrong had promised that all of the biological data gleaned by
Catlin would be posted on the Internet, a move that Catlin said was
necessary to make the program completely transparent. But at the Tour
Down Under, Armstrong’s first race out of retirement, he said he was
worried that publishing all of his biological data would prompt unfair
questions about him from the public. A layman would likely not be able
to understand complex information, he said, adding that there are
natural fluctuations in some blood levels when a rider travels to a
high altitude.
“Not everyone in this room is going to say that means I must have
cheated,” he said in a news conference. “But a few of you say it was
suspicious.” Last September, Catlin explained“The key is to have the
information out there for the public to see and to analyze because it
shows you have nothing to hide.” In recent months, Catlin’s and
Armstrong’s representatives discussed limiting the biological
information that would be made available to the public. “When you start
reducing that kind of program and limiting what you put on the Web, it
was difficult to figure out how to accomplish it without running into
enormous legal and media issues,” Catlin said.
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