Travis Tygart - "Its just classic omertà"
"USADA was concerned with protecting those who contributed to the Armstrong file, but there was only so far the agency could go. USADA officials carefully guarded their case in the weeks prior to its unveiling, but now the information is in the very hands of those who allowed the sport to reach its failed state.
“We’ve been worried from day one about witnesses getting influenced, intimidated, their feet cut out from under them. We’ve been very clear about that, because we know it happens. We’ve seen it happen,” he said, pointing to Armstrong’s text messages to Leipheimer’s wife Odessa, which appear in the dossier, as an example.
Leipheimer finds himself the first casualty since the USADA report went public last week.
“It’s just classic omerta — actions speak louder than words,” Tygart repeated. “I think it’s the narrow-sighted lack of leadership within the sport that has led to the problem to begin with,” he said, adding that those in control of the sport seemed to be interested only in “short-term” profits rather than the long-term health of professional cycling.
“It’s disappointing. We have shown what the culture was, the pressure that kept it… to see it crop up so instantaneously just further perpetuates the problem,” he said.
Now, USADA’s work is largely done. It’s up to the sport’s governing body and teams how it to proceed. “We’re at a juncture, I think,” Tygart said. “We’ve done our job, we’ve handed it off. But they’re at a pivotal point in their history, and we only hope they go in the right direction.”
http://velonews.competitor.com/2012/...pheimer_261684
Travis gets straight to the point as usual - this interview really deserves its own thread
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"USADA was concerned with protecting those who contributed to the Armstrong file, but there was only so far the agency could go. USADA officials carefully guarded their case in the weeks prior to its unveiling, but now the information is in the very hands of those who allowed the sport to reach its failed state.
“We’ve been worried from day one about witnesses getting influenced, intimidated, their feet cut out from under them. We’ve been very clear about that, because we know it happens. We’ve seen it happen,” he said, pointing to Armstrong’s text messages to Leipheimer’s wife Odessa, which appear in the dossier, as an example.
Leipheimer finds himself the first casualty since the USADA report went public last week.
“It’s just classic omerta — actions speak louder than words,” Tygart repeated. “I think it’s the narrow-sighted lack of leadership within the sport that has led to the problem to begin with,” he said, adding that those in control of the sport seemed to be interested only in “short-term” profits rather than the long-term health of professional cycling.
“It’s disappointing. We have shown what the culture was, the pressure that kept it… to see it crop up so instantaneously just further perpetuates the problem,” he said.
Now, USADA’s work is largely done. It’s up to the sport’s governing body and teams how it to proceed. “We’re at a juncture, I think,” Tygart said. “We’ve done our job, we’ve handed it off. But they’re at a pivotal point in their history, and we only hope they go in the right direction.”
http://velonews.competitor.com/2012/...pheimer_261684
Travis gets straight to the point as usual - this interview really deserves its own thread
__________________
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