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1. Weekly Dispatch o^o o^o o^o o^o o^o o^o



Lance Armstrong continues to make news like the Tour de France is still on. Here's a digest of what's happened to the besieged seven-time winner since last week.



-----Armstrong told a Texas newspaper that he's considering forgetting retirement and going for an eighth Tour victory next season. "I'm thinking it’s the best way to piss [the French] off," said Lance. "I'm exercising every day."



Apparently he's somewhat serious. And that set speculation buzzing. It caused Armstrong to issue this clarification:



"While I'm absolutely enjoying my time as a retired athlete with Sheryl and the kids, the recent smear campaign out of France has awoken my competitive side. I'm not willing to put a percentage on the chances [of a comeback] but I will no longer rule it out."



The prospect of his unretirement was not greeted warmly in France. "Armstrong Threatens to Come Back" was the headline in L'Equipe, the French sports newspaper that on Aug. 23 reported it had proof that Armstrong was taking the blood booster EPO during the '99 Tour, his first victory.



"Publicity? Bluff? Or simply provocation?" the paper asked. "Armstrong has thus definitely chosen to put the affair in the context of Franco-American hostilities." It noted the rider's main motivation appeared to be to anger the French.



-----Discovery Channel team director Johann Bruyneel confirmed to the Associated Press that a comeback is "definitely an open possibility. I know Lance is on the bike. He absolutely wants to be part of our training camp in December and wants to get fit to compete with the guys there."



Bruyneel said Armstrong could decide to rejoin the team as late as February. "I'm sure he could win [another Tour]. The way he won this year ... everything pretty much under control and he never showed any weakness. He has another Tour in his legs yet. A comeback would be something beautiful."



Motivation? According to Bruyneel, "I think Lance has been very offended" by the allegations of EPO use. "If you know him he doesn't need a lot to find some motivation. I think it woke up the competitive side of him."



French hostility? "He proved in the past that he can deal with that," Bruyneel said. "He is at his maximum under pressure. Physically and mentally he can deal with a lot."



-----Armstrong's prime rival, Jan Ullrich, doesn't believe a word of it, saying, "After his farewell party in Paris, I can't imagine that he'll participate in the Tour once again. I'm certainly not putting myself under pressure."



Armstrong's former teammate, Roberto Heras, has a different take: "A comeback is the only good answer. But then there will be the problem that the French will undoubtedly produce new accusations after that season."



-----Damien Ressiot is the reporter who claimed in L'Equipe that there is laboratory proof Armstrong used EPO in the '99 Tour. When asked by cyclingnews.com, Ressiot had this response to widespread criticism of L'Equipe's motives:



"I admit that it's a little cruel to stigmatize [Armstrong] only," said Ressiot, alluding to the fact that his article did not name six other riders whose urine samples supposedly were positive for EPO. "But Armstrong made several declarations in the past that he would open his medical dossier, and he never did. Of course, the information we published is very personal, but then you shouldn't announce that you're ready to reveal it any time if you're not going to. While I was working on the current revelations, I asked him to, but he didn't.



"I did focus on him as a person, on the challenge that he threw at the journalists by repeatedly saying, 'Do you think I'm doped? Then prove it!' Besides, I don't have the means to publish the identities of the other six samples -- if I had them in my hands, they'd be in the newspaper, that's for sure. It's not in my habit to protect anybody."




-----**** Pound, head of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), is the latest cycling VIP to say he trusts the test that found Armstrong and six other Tour riders positive for EPO. Speaking to a Germany publication, Pound said: "After we looked at all the documents in this matter, I see a very high probability that there was performance-enhancing drugs activity. I have no reason to believe that the analysis of the samples was not regular. It may be that EPO traces disappear gradually from urine, but it cannot be that no EPO should be in them and then it emerges as if from nowhere."




However, Pound said it would be "legally very problematic" for WADA to take punitive action against Armstrong, admitting that "our information about [him] came from the sport newspaper L'Equipe," not from official testing.



-----Armstrong continues to strenuously deny L'Equipe's charges. He disputes the validity of the urine-based test for EPO. He cites possible deterioration of the '99 Tour samples during six years of storage. And he questions the way the testing was done. Dr. Martial Saugy, head of the Swiss anti-doping laboratory, confirms a certain amount of subjectivity in the test, saying, "You are looking at numbers and signals, but in the end what is most important here is the experience of the eyes of an expert."



So it's good news for the crusade against doping that an Australian biotechnology company has announced development of a more objective urine test for EPO. It remains to be seen if cycling's world governing organization, the UCI, will use it. The reason the '99 Tour's frozen samples were recently tested at all was to check the accuracy of the current method, known to produce false positives. The results were supposed to be secret and anonymous until L'Equipe got involved.



-----The French news agency Agence France Presse reports that another Armstrong insider is claiming there were "strange occurrences" at the '99 Tour. Dutchman Ron Jongen, who worked at the time for Armstrong's former team, U.S. Postal Service, says he saw three Spanish doctors discreetly arrive at the team's hotel.



Jongen also says he overheard USPS director Johan Bruyneel talking about his riders' red blood cell level at a team meeting on the eve of the '99 Tour. The banned drug EPO is used to increase oxygen-carrying red cells.





Last year, similar charges were made by another USPS staff member, Emma O'Reilly, and reported in a French-language book, LA Confidential: The Secrets of Lance Armstrong. The Irishwoman claimed she provided Armstrong with makeup to cover syringe marks on his arm and was instructed to collect drugs for him in a parking lot.

Armstrong and Bruyneel deny all accusations of illegal drug use, even the flimsiest.


-----On a brighter note, Armstrong, who will turn 34 on Sept. 18, announced his engagement to rocker Sheryl Crow, 43, after saying he got his three little kids' permission to marry. The wedding will probably be next spring.