Tuesday, Aug. 30, 2005 | 9:33 a.m.
Union to investigate Armstrong's EPO Tests
The International Cycling Union said it would investigate the report in French newspaper L'Equipe of positive drug tests on urine samples from the 1999 Tour de France.
The sports newspaper reported last week that a new test found a banned endurance-boosting drug in seven-time champion Lance Armstrong's sample from 1999. Cycling's governing body didn't mention Armstrong's name in the release announcing the probe.
Armstrong has denied the L'Equipe report that six samples from his first Tour victory showed traces of the banned hormone erythropoietin, or EPO.
While EPO, which increases the number of oxygen-carrying red blood cells, was on the list of banned substances in 1999, there was no way to test for it then. The cycling union validated the current test in April 2001.
"Following the revelations published last week in the press concerning the results of the analysis of urine samples from the 1999 Tour de France, the (ICU) confirms that it is pursuing global assessment of the situation," the ICU said in a statement on its Web site.
Six plead guilty to selling fake wristbands
Six people have pleaded guilty to charges connected to the sale of thousands of phony LiveStrong wristbands and have turned over almost $112,000 to the Lance Armstrong Foundation, New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer's office said.
In March, undercover investigators bought 1,000 of the counterfeit wristbands from a Manhattan storefront, authorities said.
Investigators said they found 81,000 more there and at a home in Queens. Authorities said importer Eastlink International Inc. distributed the wristbands to retailers around New York City.
The authentic wristbands sell for $1 each and help fund the foundation based in Austin, Texas, that provides services to cancer patients. The Armstrong foundation was started by the seven-time Tour de France winner after he defeated testicular cancer.
Former NFL player shot in back by stray bullet
Former NFL safety Jarvis Williams was in stable condition Monday after he was shot in the back early Sunday in a nightclub parking lot.
Williams, a former Florida player who spent 1988-93 with the Miami Dolphins and finished his NFL career in 1994 with the New York Giants, was running to safety when he was hit in the back, said Mary Justino, the Clay County Sheriff's office spokeswoman.
"He was not the intended victim," Justino said. "He pretty much got hit by a stray bullet."
-- Sun wire services
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