Armstrong rejects French offer of 1999 sample re-test

Seven-times Tour de France winner Lance Armstrong has dismissed as irrelevant an offer by an anti-doping authority to test his urine samples from the 1999 race.

France's national anti-doping agency (AFLD) on Wednesday offered Armstrong an analysis of his samples from the 1999 Tour "to prove his good faith", French sports newspaper L'Equipe reported.

However, Armstrong, who is coming out of retirement to return to competitive cycling with Team Astana next year, believes any such test would be meaningless.

"In 2005, some research was conducted on urine samples left over from the 1998 and 1999 Tours de France," the 37-year-old American said in a statement on Wednesday.

"That research was the subject of an independent investigation and the conclusions were that the 1998 and 1999 Tour de France samples have not been maintained properly, have been compromised in many ways and even three years ago could not be tested to provide any meaningful results.

"There is simply nothing that I can agree to that would provide any relevant evidence about 1999."

Armstrong, who retired after winning the 2005 Tour de France, announced last month that he was returning to the sport and will bid for an eighth Tour victory.

A survivor of testicular cancer, Armstrong will be reunited at Astana with Johan Bruyneel, who was the Texan's team director for all his Tour victories with US Postal and Discovery from 1999-2005.

The Astana team is hiring anti-doping expert Don Catlin to supervise a transparent biological monitoring of Armstrong that will be made available online throughout his training and racing.

Armstrong's career has been dogged by doping suspicions but he has always vehemently denied using performance-enhancing drugs.

Ricco banned

Meanwhile, Italy's Riccardo Ricco has been banned for two years for taking the blood booster EPO before this year's Tour de France, an Italian Olympic Committee (CONI) spokesman told Reuters yesterday.

The ban, issued by a CONI tribunal, was harsher than expected as prosecutors had asked for a reduced 20-month suspension after the rider admitted his guilt.

The 25-year-old tested positive in a doping control after the fourth stage of July's three-week race. He initially protested his innocence after the failed test but then admitted taking the banned substance.

He was kicked out of the Tour and sacked by his Saunier-Duval team, who also left the race.

Ricco, who won two stages at the Tour before his departure and was second in May's Giro d'Italia, also faced a criminal probe in France for possession and use of drugs.