Armstrong petitions,seeks reprieve

The new filing points out that in the weeks preceding the 2000 agreement between the Postal Service and Armstrong’s team,there were reports that French authorities had begun looking into doping allegations.

“Although the government now pretends to be aggrieved by these allegations,its actions at the time are far more telling,” Armstrong’s lawyers write. “Did it immediately fire the Postal Service Team? Did it suspend the team pending an investigation? Rather than exercise its right to terminate the agreement,it renewed its contract.”

That’s because Armstrong had recently won the 2000 Tour de France,and the government “wanted a winner and all the publicity,exposure and acclaim that goes along with being his sponsor,” the lawyers argue. “That was more than a decade ago. It is now far too late for the government to revisit its choice.”