Lance Armstrong and the Tour de France: Tensions escalate

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Lance Armstrong issued a video from Aspen Friday where he is training and rehabbing from his broken collarbone and after giving an update on his physical recovery (good) he dropped in a little bombshell involving the French anti-doping agency, AFLD.

‘There is a very high likelihood that they will prohibit me from riding in the tour,’ Armstrong said.

The AFLD is contending that Armstrong violated drug testing rules when he left a French drug tester and took an unaccompanied shower for 20 minutes while his team director Johan Bruyneel checked on the legitimacy of the tester who was unfamilair to either Armstrong or Bruyneel and who showed up outside a rented house in southern France where Armstrong had been training before the accident that caused his broken collarbone.

According to Pat McQuaid, the director of the International Cycling Federation (UCI) said in an email he believes the AFLD is ‘overreaching’ in its contention Armstrong’s intention was to practice any deception in his actions in France but also made clear the UCI has no control over which riders the Tour de France certifies as eligible for its race.

According to a Velonews story the AFLD has begun a formal investigation into Armstrong’s actions during the French drug test last month.

-- Diane Pucin