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So far, so good No evidence of drugs in U.S. Postal inquiry, official says
PARIS (AP) -- Tests on blood and urine samples taken from Lance Armstrong's U.S. Postal Service team during the 2000 Tour de France have so far revealed no evidence of doping, a French judicial official said Monday, adding that new tests have been requested. "For now, we don't have test results that prove that doping products have been taken," Francois Franchi, the assistant to the Paris prosecutor handling a judicial inquiry against U.S. Postal, told The Associated Press in a telephone interview. U.S. Postal says it respects anti-doping rules and Armstrong, who this year won his third straight Tour title, has repeatedly denied taking banned substances. He has never failed a drug test but has been dogged by suspicions of doping. "We have partial results from tests," said Franchi. "All [doping] substances are being looked for, including EPO." EPO is a banned performance-enhancer that was at the center of the doping scandal that nearly wrecked the 1998 Tour. "For now, we haven't yet found any EPO. We don't have anything concrete or positive," said Franchi. He said the tests already underway were to be completed by the end of the year. Franchi said he requested a new round of tests "to try to find another way of establishing whether there has been doping or not." He wouldn't say what the new tests were, nor did he provide a time frame for their completion. The judicial inquiry, opened last November, is headed by French judge Sophie-Helene Chateau and seeks to determine whether the team violated a 1999 law concerning the prevention and suppression of the use of drugs and blood products. The inquiry stemmed from allegations that the team may have used doping products during the 2000 Tour de France, which Armstrong won. The results of the inquiry could lead to charges being pressed. The investigation was triggered by an anonymous letter saying a crew from France-3 television had detected suspicious behavior by team officials during the Tour.
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