USADA’s charging letter to Armstrong states they have “multiple riders with firsthand knowledge” that will testify that the seven-time Tour de France champion used EPO amoung other performance enhancing drugs. There has been much speculation about who those multiple riders are. A couple of obvious picks are Floyd Landis and Tyler Hamilton. You can also add Frankie Andreu as a possible person who would testify. These additional names provided by USA Cycling could also be part of the riders with firsthand knowledge.
To give them the benefit of the doubt it could be argued that Hincapie, Leipheimer and Vande Velde were never serious potential candidates on a course that is considered to favor a sprinter like Mark Cavendish, Peter Sagan or America’s Tyler Farrar. As such you need to build a team around one rider – in America’s case Farrar. Hincapie and Leipheimer won’t be the best picks for those slots. Sure Hincapie, Vande Velde or Leipheimer could be “road captains” as race radios are not allowed. However, it looks like Chris Horner has that position filled and quite frankly, he’ll do an excellent job. But I still wonder, why bother to ask USA Cycling to not consider them? One name that I can’t think of any reason he would ask to be excluded for Olympic consideration is Zabriskie.
This past May, Zabriskie won the time trial at the Amgen Tour of California. Then he defended his national time trial championship later that month in Greenville. At the post race press conference the Olympics were a goal. Even Taylor Phinney, who will be riding the time trial in the Olympics says that it’s a gamble to choose him. So what happened for Zabriskie, between May 26th (the day of the time trial championships) and today?
When USADA takes Armstrong to arbitration I’m guessing we’ll see these four names again. It’s going to be hard for Armstrong’s attorneys to dismiss them as disgruntled or crazy.
Twitter big deal @neilroad chimes in on the H’crit Pack. “USADA’s Unknown Ten List Gets Smaller?”- http://t.co/8WvqmHdI
So for the sake of speculation, assuming they are all american citizens or hold american licences..
Im assuming the ten are holders of US Racing Licences, that way USADA can Protect them
Likely:
Landis
Hamilton
Frankie A
Hincapie
Leipheimer
Vande Velde
Zabriskie
Possibles
Jason McCartney, 2005-07 and again 2009-10
Vaughters possibly but wasnt at postal that long
Outsiders
Antonio Cruz 2001-05
Dylan Casey 1999-02 – Think hes still very much a livestrong supporter
Kenny Labbé 2000-04
Robbie Ventura 2001-04
Leftfield
Chad Gerlach (although that would be ace – he can tell everyone about when Lance tried to beat him down at the US training camp)
Might this include the names on the Lance witness list?
http://t.co/BUyPBIJ1
@neilroad considers it
http://t.co/x6l4Ced3
@martinpmcevoy http://t.co/tKFTISn1
USADA’s unknown ten list gets smaller? http://t.co/0VEC5OWZ
“When USADA takes Armstrong to arbitration I’m guessing we’ll see these four names again. It’s going to be hard for Armstrong’s attorneys to dismiss them as disgruntled or crazy.”
I think many of the USADA execs are disgruntled and crazy.