Report Says Doping Was Ignored to Shield Armstrong @NY Times

Lance Armstrong, right, with Hein Verbruggen of the International Cycling Union in 2005.CreditFranck Fife/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images 
For years, cycling’s top officials turned a blind eye to doping, operating in deference primarily to one rider — Lance Armstrong — according to a reform commission that spent the past year excavating the sport’s doping problems.
The three-member commission issued a scathing indictment of the sport’s officials Sunday, laying much of the blame on a governing body that, it said, had interests that ran counter to any genuine efforts to expose doping. The 227-page report detailed how Mr. Armstrong’s extraordinary influence had not only compelled officials to ignore drug use but had also enabled his lawyer to secretly write and edit the report of an earlier investigation into Mr. Armstrong’s doping practices.
The panel was appointed by the main target of its criticism, the International Cycling Union, commonly known as U.C.I., in January 2014 as part of an effort by its newly elected president to rebuild the sport after revelations of the sophisticated doping program of Mr. Armstrong and his team. In October 2012, the United States Anti-Doping Agency exposed Mr. Armstrong’s years of cheating in devastating breadth and detail.
[Keep reading at New York Times]

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