Chief doctor of Armstrong’s US Postal Service team dismisses Landis’ blood-doping claims

Doc for Armstrong’s USPS team denies doping claims

MADRID — The chief doctor for Lance Armstrong’s U.S. Postal Service-backed cycling team when the rider won five of his seven Tour de France victories is dismissing Floyd Landis’ doping allegations.

Luis Garcia del Moral oversaw the team’s medical staff from 1999 to 2003. He said Wednesday he never witnessed any doping programs during his time with the American team. Armstrong also won the Tour in 2004 with U.S. Postal and the 2005 Tour with the Discovery Channel.

“I don’t know anything about all of this,” Del Moral told The Associated Press by telephone. “I never saw any such things.”

Landis has accused Armstrong of doping to get an illegal edge in cycling, which Armstrong vehemently denies. A former Postal teammate of Armstrong’s, Landis was himself stripped of his 2006 Tour title after testing positive for drugs, and failed to overturn his disqualification in an expensive and lengthy arbitration process.

After years of denials, Landis admitted last spring to doping and accused Armstrong among other cyclists of also using performance-enhancing drugs.

Del Moral was not named in an e-mail Landis sent to USA Cycling chief Steve Johnson on April 30 detailing his claims of blood doping within cycling.

“I’m very relaxed in all of this because I have nothing to worry about,” said Del Moral, who had two doctors reporting to him on the team. “Landis didn’t name me, so if I’m not named it means something.

“I have nothing to hide. This is ridiculous.”

Del Moral says he would answer questions for U.S. investigators should he be summoned. Authorities in the United States have been examining cheating in professional cycling for months.

Johan Bruyneel was team manager of the U.S. Postal team. He also denies the allegations and says Landis attempted to blackmail him for money or a spot on a team.