July 09, 2012 – While suggestions abound that five former teammates of Lance Armstrong on the U.S. Postal Service team will testify against the seven-time Tour de France winner, it seems that one of Armstrong’s main rivals has finally admitted to doping – sort of.

The five former members of the U.S. Postal Service team who will testify apparently include Jonathan Vaughters, currently the team manager for Garmin Sharp, as well as riders George Hincapie (BMC Racing Team), Levi Leipheimer (Omega Pharma-Quickstep), Christian Vande Velde (Garmin Sharp), and David Zabriskie (Garmin Sharp).

The four riders were notably excluded from USA Cycling’s 2012 Olympic team. This has led to widespread speculation that perhaps the four cut a deal with U.S. Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) to receive reduced sanctions for doping in exchange for testifying against Armstrong.

Meanwhile across the pond retired German cyclist, Jan Ullrich (formerly T-Mobile) – who won the 1997 Tour de France – is quoted in the French weekly Le Journal du dimanche as saying that, in his day, it was impossible to do well at the TdF without doping. “And this goes for me, too.” Ullrich’s remark was apparently made to the German Press Agency (dpa).

Ullrich later nuanced these remarks in a statement on his personal website, saying that, “For my mistake in a section of my career, I can speak for myself and stand up straight. I feel I am however not to say that great achievements were reached earlier in cycling solely with doping. From personal experience I can confirm that top performances [were possible] without illicit means and are today! I want to clarify [this] in great detail.”

Ullrich also finished second in the TdF in 1996, 1998, 2000, 2001, 2003, and 2005 and was widely viewed as Armstrong’s main rival. Like Armstrong, Ullrich was often accused of doping, a charge he always denied until his recent comment. Ullrich retired from cycling in 2007, but was convicted of a doping offence before the Court of Arbitration in Sport (CAS) in 2012, given a retroactive ban, and stripped of all titles going back to 2005.

The current charges against Ullrich’s main rival, Lance Armstrong, also include the Texan’s former team manager Johan Bruyneel, and team doctors Pedro Celaya Lezama and Luis Garcia del Moral; team trainer Pepe Marti, and consulting doctor Michele Ferrari reports AP.

USADA considers the charges to be so similar that it has rolled the case against all these men into one. The six are accused of using, possessing and trafficking banned substances including EPO, blood transfusions and steroids. The charges relate to the period between 1998 and 2010. Armstrong, 40, if convicted, risks losing his seven TdF titles. In June 2012, a USADA panel has unanimously recommended that doping charges be taken to arbitration.

A similar arbitration panel reviewed charges against Floyd Landis (formerly PHONAK) in 2007, leading to Landis’ conviction of using synthetic testosterone and his losing the 2006 TdF title. The current climate seems to echo that of 2007 when doping allegations made for dark days for cycling.

Tour rider Bradley Wiggins (Team Sky) recently made headlines ranting about a doping question while the Armstrong allegations seem to generating more news than the TdF itself. USADA claims that at least 10 former Armstrong teammates and associates will testify against the cyclist. It also claims that Armstrong’s blood samples from 2009 and 2010 are ”fully consistent” with blood doping.

The arbitration panel could begin sitting by November, 2012 although Armstrong’s lawyers have indicated they will try to delay proceedings. The implications of USADA’s move are being felt already, however. Bruyneel, currently the manager of the Radioshack-Nissan-Trek, is skipping this year’s TdF because of the investigation.

The list of former members of USPS is long and includes many notable names in cycling:

Former members of U.S. Postal (from Wikipedia) HERE.

Le Journal du dimanche (in French) HERE.

Ullrich’s statement (in German) HERE.

AP article (in English) HERE.