In fact, Ferrari's help was both more significant and more extended than early reports had shown.In June 2004 Sunday Times writer David Walsh and French journalist Pierre Ballester publishedLA Confidentiel, a book that attempts to list every bad thing Armstrong has allegedly ever done.(Armstrong is suing Walsh, Ballester and nine other related parties for libel, and the French-language book has never been published in English.)The book doesn't spell out exactly what Ferrari is supposed to have done for Armstrong. Butfrom Italian investigators, who had access to hotel records, Walsh learned that Armstrong hadvisited Ferrara on numerous occasions, which he listed:
"two days in March 1999, three days
in May 2000, two days in August 2000, one day in September 2000 and three days in late
April/early May of this year [2001]."
Those visits came at key points, for Tour preparation and just before the 2000 Olympics, where Armstrong wanted a medal.
Their relationship began as long ago as 1995,
when Eddy Merckx had called Ferrari, asking
him to take on a new client, a young American who'd won a Tour stage as well as the San
Sebastian Classic that year.
Ferrari wasn't interested, he says, but Merckx persisted, and in
November of 1995 Lance Armstrong came to Ferrara for the Test.