From the look of this it appears to be a situation of a gopher, Anderson, who wants mucho $ from a former employer.
There is a very good question of why the accusation about seeing a steroid has ANY revelance to the claim of Anderson on his reported employment/support agreement with Armstrong. Rather than providing the e-mail which would authenicate an agreement (an e-mail that has never been produced BTW) here comes the accusation of steroid use by Armstrong.
The court filing has so many elements of drama it's hilarious, such as the fainting spells by Anderson due to his hypoglacimia (odd as he is an "accomplished mountain biker", clearly at odds with the fainting) and Anderson having to fly in regular class rather than first class. Horror of horrors!
There seems to be some big holes in this accusation however as the following culled from the AAS article points out:
Quote:
Armstrong, via e-mail, deferred comment on the Anderson lawsuit to Tim Herman, his Austin-based attorney.
Herman said he was not surprised by Thursday's counterclaim, since Anderson's attorneys first made the drug allegations, he said, when they demanded $500,000 from Armstrong.
"It's precisely what they threatened to do, unless we paid them the money,'' Herman said. "When they asked for the $500,000, they might should have worn a ski mask. . . . We told them unequivocally we are not going to pay blackmail or extortion money on something that's not true.''
"Androstenin'' is not on the banned lists of WADA, USADA or the UCI, the governing body of international cycling. However, the substances androstenedione and androstenediol are listed as illegal drugs. They are classified as steroid precursors and are included as an androgen, which is a class of male hormone drugs. These kind of drugs help athletes build muscle mass. Mark McGwire admitted he was using androstenedione when he broke major-league baseball's single-season home run record.
Until Jan. 20, steroid precursors such as androstenedione, commonly known as "andro," were sold over the counter as dietary supplements. It is now illegal under federal law to possess these supplements without a doctor's prescription.
John Hoberman, a University of Texas professor and an author who has documented abuses of drugs in sports for decades, questioned whether an endurance athlete such as Armstrong would desire to take an androgen.
"It's not a drug you find turning up in the hotel rooms of professional cyclists,'' Hoberman said, referring to drug raids police have frequently conducted in Europe during big cycling events, especially the Giro d'Italia.
The banned drug of choice with cyclists is artificial erythropoietin, or EPO, which is used to increase the number of red blood cells carrying oxygen. Cyclists have used testosterone, a naturally-produced male hormone, to better recover during long stage races such as the 23-day Tour.
Armstrong has never tested positive for an illegal substance during his six-year Tour de France winning streak. He has been tested at the beginning of every Tour and each day he wore the overall leader's yellow jersey. He was handpicked last July by France's Minister of Sport for a random screen featuring the newest technology designed to pick up the use of banned substances.
"The last thing an endurance athlete wants to do is look like Mark McGwire,'' Herman said. "With the testing at the Tour . . . if he had taken an anabolic steroid, it would have set (the test) on fire."
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