New York Times-Former Cyclists Claim Lance Armstrong Was Juicing

photo credit: Bernd Thissen/European Press Photo Agency

(Story reported by Juliet Macur and Michael S. Schmidt)

Federal prosecutors have intensified their criminal investigation of the cyclist Lance Armstrong since the end of the Tour de France last month. They questioned many of his former associates, including cyclists who have supported and detailed claims that Armstrong and his former United States Postal Service team participated in systematic doping, according to a cyclist who has been interviewed and two others privy to the inquiry. 

In May, Armstrong’s former teammate Floyd Landis shook the cycling world by publicly accusing Armstrong and other team members of using performance-enhancing drugs and blood transfusions to gain an unfair advantage. Landis said that Armstrong — the biggest name in the sport — had encouraged doping and that the team had sold its bikes to help finance an expensive doping program. 

Armstrong has denied any wrongdoing and has said that Landis, who was stripped of his 2006 Tour title for doping and received a two-year ban from the sport, has no credibility. 

(click here to read the full story on the New York Times website)