Austin, Texas
Seven-time Tour de France champion Lance Armstrong said he was the victim of a “witch hunt” this week, after a Paris newspaper accused him of using performance-enhancing drugs to win his first Tour, in 1999. L’Equipe, a sports daily, reported that a French lab recently used new technology to test frozen urine samples for a drug that boosts oxygen flow in the bloodstream. The samples were anonymous, but the newspaper said it linked a positive result to Armstrong using a code found on other documents identifying him by name. “I will simply restate what I have said many times,” the cycling legend from Texas said on his Web site. “I have never taken performance-enhancing drugs.”
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
-
5 fairly vain cartoons about Vanity Fair’s interviews with Susie WilesCartoon Artists take on demolition derby, alcoholic personality, and more
-
Joanna Trollope: novelist who had a No. 1 bestseller with The Rector’s WifeIn the Spotlight Trollope found fame with intelligent novels about the dramas and dilemmas of modern women
-
Codeword: December 20, 2025The daily codeword puzzle from The Week
