Must Read: Lance Armstrong’s 2001 Swiss tests not positive, but ‘suspicious’
3 Wire Sports reports that while Armstrong's tests never rose to the level of a positive, two of his samples were categorized as “highly suspicious"
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Armstrong’s 2001 Swiss Tour: no cover-up, “suspicious” tests — 3 Wire Sports
For nearly a dozen years, speculation has swirled that Lance Armstrong failed at least one doping test at the 2001 Tour of Switzerland, in particular for the blood-boosting drug erythropoietin, or EPO.
Even as Armstrong has in recent months acknowledged the serial doping that won him seven straight Tour de France championships from 1999 to 2005, the matter of the 2001 Tour of Switzerland has remained contentious.
Anti-doping officials have made plain their assertion Armstrong’s tests were “suspicious” for EPO. Many have wondered if there was a cover-up. Leaders from cycling’s international governing body, which goes by the acronym UCI, have said there was nothing to cover-up because Armstrong never tested positive.
Now, finally: During the 2001 Tour of Switzerland, according to the lab reports themselves, Armstrong never tested positive.
At the same time, two of his samples were, indeed, categorized as “highly suspicious.” But after extensive testing — all of it conducted in the summer of 2001 — neither met the standard to be formally declared positive.
