python said:
1. Invent, exaggerate, spin the number of tests. [/B]
We discussed this to death. only 236 tests were documented by dim. Even if dim, a private individual, missed some, an agency officially tasked with counting such tests, the united states anti-doping agency, was also dumbfounded by the number. They asked to back up the claim in the official letter. There was no response. In stead a new number was advanced overnight - 600 - by Armstrong lawyers.
I furnished Dim much of the data, and I don't think I missed much. Others pointed out to me that some of the wins or podiums that I identified in the 90s were in races where there was no testing. In some cases, I think it was just assumed that there was, just to be sure. Moreover, many of the tests were after the comeback, passports, for example. A lot of these would have just been to establish baseline, you can't test positive in those. Up to the time of his first retirement, which of course includes almost all his palmares, he probably had fewer than the 160 or so tests claimed for Marian Jones.
In the exaggeration category, Phil takes the cake. He not only repeated the 500 mantra, but claimed that LA used to get tested three times a day.
2. Engage in cover-ups, corruption, intimidation and threats of legal action
this was also extensively discussed. On at least 3 well documented occasions of positive tests there was uci cover provided - (1) acceptance of 1999 backdated prescription for a corticosteroid, (2) emergency meetings due to 2001 tos epo positive (3) vrijman report to white wash l’equipe-discovered epo positives from 1999 tdf. It is also well documented that a number of people (the list is very long - more than dozen) were sued when they tried to tell the truth. Add to the recent AFLD revelation that Armstrong was regularly warned of the testers arrival.
Don't forget the several (three?) T/E positives in the early 90s, in Caitlin's lab. Don't know if these were cover-ups, but belong in this thread. Also, how about the failure of UCI to discover his very high hCG? Not a coverup, surely, but it raises questions about the reliability of the testing in those days.
3. Run, hide, delay obfuscate
this method of beating the testers is less publicized. essentially it amounts to disappearing when the testers arrive or delaying them. The current rule is that an athlete can miss 2 tests before the hammer drops on the 3d miss within 18 months . in the just published outside magazine article, Mike Anderson described one such occasion when Armstrong ran . Tyler in his newest book also described how they would set up look-out pickets to warn of the vampires arrival. Included of course in the technique are well documented stores of Armstrong’s shower gate (2009), delays with offering coffee etc etc…
Another subset of the run-hide-delay-obfuscate group is a much less known method of trying to confuse the where-abouts system. That is, to clog the system with frequent or false messages/emails/faxes as to where an athlete actually is atm…or move to a location where no reasonable testing agency would send a human.
Tyler I think it was also mentioned that by French law there could be no testing between 10 PM and 6 AM. This was a loophole, of course, that the entire peloton could ride through.
4. A sophisticated masking system-chemical, procedural etc.
this is the key method armstrong employed. we should focus on it in particular as it allowed him to beat 99% (tyler’s number) of the tests. as more details become available, I (and hopefully other scientists) will add notes and explanations. here is one juicy bit from Tyler’s book:
"Ferrari advised Lance to sleep in an altitude test and to microdose Edgar [code name for EPO - ed.] in the vein, 800 units a night. This would help keep his haematocrit high and also beat the new EPO test. The altitude tent would create more natural EPO, helping to balance out any synthetic EPO that might linger ... his plan with Ferrari had worked out perfectly.’
That was a very interesting revelation, I don't think any of us had heard of that before. We do know, of course, from Floyd and others that riders used (still use) EPO to raise reticulocytes after a transfusion, and of course inject saline or a substance that draws fluid into the circulatory system to lower the HT. It wouldn't surprise me to learn that Ferrari had other tricks for masking EPO or its effects.
Still to be learned, if we are lucky, is whether LA had access to substances for which there were no tests, such as HemAssist, PFCs, etc.
I would add a very important part 5: tipping off the UCI that his rivals were doping (Mayo, Hamilton, maybe others). This is not directly relevant to how he passed all those tests, but it not only eliminated some of his toughest rivals, but would allow him to claim that the testing system was working. If, e.g., some big riders like Hamilton (and Heras? speculating here) tested positive because of his warning UCI, LA could say that the tests were not all that easy to beat.
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