The bicycle thieves

Hincapie was Armstrong’s most loyal lieutenant,assisting the Texan to each of his seven TdF victories.

Frankie Andreu: A general consensus arose on the Motorola team that it would necessary for us to use EPO because there were so many against whom we were competing that were using. At the time,I recall LA (Armstrong) saying he was getting his butt kicked and was in favour of doing something about it. In early 1996,he had bulked up considerably,on working with Dr Michele Ferrari… Among the questions asked by the doctors during his cancer treatment was whether Lance had used performance enhancing drugs. He responded that he had taken EPO,testosterone,growth hormone,cortisone and steroids. I was surprised that he had confessed his drug use in a room full of people. I was with Lance just before a public medical check to be done shirtless at the 1999 TdF. Just before going out someone noticed a bruise on Lance’s upper arm where he had been injected. The location was a place bruising occurs from EPO syringes. I recall Lance saying,“Oh,sh*t,that’s not good.” Masseur Emma O’ Reilly’s make up was put on Lance to cover the injection site.

Andreu rode with Armstrong in Motorola and also captained the champ in the US Postal Service team between ‘98 & 2000.

Floyd Landis: In 2002,I flew on a helicopter with Armstrong to St Moritz,Switzerland. Upon arrival,I went to defendant Armstrong’s apartment,where he gave me a package of 2.5ml testosterone patches in front of his wife at that time,Kristin. Subsequently,I met Dr Ferrari at Armstrong’s apartment,where he performed an extraction of half a litre of my blood,which would be transfused back into my body during the TdF. During when,Armstrong and I laid on opposite sides of the bed and received re-infusions. After the time trial,Armstrong mentioned to me that he was disappointed with the result and believed a cause may have been careless storage of the blood. He had a second bag that was stored differently from the first for the latter half of the race. Armstrong stated that he had tested positive for EPO while winning the Tour de Suisse in 2001,at which point he made a financial agreement with UCI chief Mr Hein Verbruggen to keep the matter hidden.

Long before he won the TdF in 2006 under dubious circumstances,Landis was handpicked by LA in ‘02 for US Postal

Levi Leipheimer: As we worked on our own blood program in 2005,Floyd told me about an incident during the 2004 TdF in which he said that the entire team received transfusions on the team bus following a stage. He told me that Lance was present in the bus and received a transfusion. In 2007,I returned to the Discovery Channel team. Johan (Bruyneel) said he was frequently asked how Lance had doped and whether there was some mysterious substance that Lance had and no one else did; Johan said that Lance used the same things everyone else did,which I understood him to mean EPO,testosterone and blood transfusions. Johan said it was funny to watch everyone freak out trying to find out what Lance was doing when he was simply using the same substances everyone else was using.

Bronze medallist in Beijing,Leipheimer was an integral member of Armstrong’s peloton in US Postal,Discovery and Astana

Tyler Hamilton: In 1999 I was in Nice at Lance and Kristin Armstrong’s villa. I asked Lance if he had any EPO. Lance directed me to the refrigerator where the EPO was next to the milk. I helped myself to a vial. Dr. Ferrari came up with an olive oil-testosterone mix that we called simply the “oil.” On several occasions,Lance squirted it in my mouth following a stage. Lance kept a bottle in his bag and I saw him use it on many occasions. During the 1999 TdF Lance,Kevin (Livingston) and I used EPO every third or fourth day,until the third week of the Tour. We also used a substance known as Actovegin,which was supposed to improve oxygen delivery to the muscles.

Athens gold medallist Hamilton was Armstrong’s team-mate in 1999,2000 and ‘01 — all Yellow jersey winning years

Jonathan Vaughters: At a training camp Lance told me that the UCI should have detected a high level of HCG in his doping controls when he had cancer but failed to do so. Thus in Lance’s eyes the UCI was somewhat at fault for the extent of his cancer. In any case Lance said,“if I ever have a doping problem,I have this card to play.” At the World Championships a drug tester showed up. At that point Dr. Celaya went out to the car and retrieved a litre of saline. He hid it under his raincoat,walked right past the tester and went into Lance’s room,closed the door and administered the saline to lower his hematocrit level. Later,someone decided that cortisone should be made available for the team. Kristin Armstrong was wrapping cortisone tablets in foil and handing them out. Someone made the remark,“Lance’s wife is rolling joints.”

A specialist climber,Vaughters was essential in delivering LA his first TdF in 1999,before becoming his team manager

Not so mellow behind the yellow

‘F**king tear you apart’ Tyler Hamilton: During the 1999 TdF,Lance rode up to the French cyclist Christophe Bassons who had been writing a column in which he was discussing doping in the peloton. Lance tore into Bassons for his comments and said he was hurting the sport. Lance suggested that Bassons get out of cycling. A day later,Bassons had dropped out of the race.

In March 2011,I was contacted by 60 Minutes for an interview. I was required to go to many people to whom I had not previously told about my doping,including most painfully my mother and father and other family members. The 60 Minutes interview aired on May 22,2011.

On June 11,2011,I travelled to Aspen,Colorado,to attend an event organised by Outside magazine. During dinner that evening I got up from the table to use the facilities. I was returning to our table when a hand forcibly stopped me. It was Lance.

In comments punctuated with expletives,he asked,“How much did 60 Minutes pay you?” He said,“When you’re on the witness stand,we are going to f**king tear you apart … I’m going to make your life a living f**king hell.”

Beginnings of the end

Jonathan Vaughters: In 2003 I ended my career as a professional cyclist and became a team manager. One of my goals became to develop a professional team that could compete without using performance enhancing drugs. As I began to talk about this goal,my relationship with Lance began to change.

Dr. Prentice Steffen was the physician for TIAA-CREF,and had made a couple of comments to the media about Lance that could be interpreted as suggesting that Lance was doping.

Lance called a couple of times about Dr. Steffen,and it soon became clear to me that we would likely lose sponsorships we had with Lance’s sponsors if Dr. Steffen stays with the team. Lance would say things like,“I certainly hope this doesn’t become a bigger issue for you than it needs to be.”

After Doug Ellis and I formed Slipstream Sports,Lance began contacting Doug suggesting that he should remove me from management of the team. I attributed these efforts as tied to my statements about doping in cycling,much as Lance had attacked Christophe Bassons.

‘Run,don’t walk’

Levi Leipheimer: In October of 2010 I was subpoenaed to testify before the federal grand jury in California,and I testified truthfully. Shortly after my testimony I attended a dinner with Lance. During the course of that dinner,although he did not speak to me,Lance sent a text to my wife Odessa that said,“Run,don’t walk.” This was the first time in several years that Lance had communicated to Odessa and in this context his message to her felt threatening.

During the 2012 Tour de France,and shortly after I had been interviewed by the USADA’s General Counsel,my wife Odessa received a text from Lance asking,“Are you in CA.” Both Odessa and I found this text to be very disturbing as she was indeed home alone at the time,and I was in Europe competing.

My way or the highway

Christian Vande Velde: In 2002,Lance called me up and asked me to come to his apartment in Girona to discuss my role in the team. When I got there I saw Lance was accompanied by Dr Ferrari and at that point I realised he wanted to talk about more than just my performances. Armstrong told me that if I wanted to continue to ride with the Postal Services team I would have to follow Dr Ferrari’s ‘program’ to the letter.

The conversation left me in no doubt that the only way I could continue in Armstrong’s team was to get on Dr. Ferrari’s drug program. While on the team you were either Lance’s friend or his enemy and treated you as an outcast. He was upset with those critical of drug use and seemed to take it personally.