Did Lance Try to Fly Under the Radar?

Seven-time Tour de France champ and cancer activist Lance Armstrong is back in the news, but not for great physical feats.

This time, hes defending himself against doping charges that could strip him of the seven Tour de France titles that he won from 1999 to 2005.

While many of the allegations have been raised before, and were the subject of a federal investigation that concluded several months ago with no criminal charges, there is some surprising new evidence that Armstrong continued to dope during his "comeback" to professional cycling from 2009 to 2011.

PHOTOS: Lance Armstrong: Cycling Legend

It seems odd he would continue, said Thomas Brenna, professor of nutritional science at Cornell University and researcher into the use of steroids in sports.

Brenna says that even though Armstrong did not fail any doping tests, his biochemistry may have been suspicious enough to raise alarm bells by U.S. Anti-Doping Agency officials.

They are charging that he was flying under the radar, Brenna said. That indicates that they believe that based on the totality of the evidence that he has been systematically been doping and avoiding detection in same sense that the BALCO folks (the San Francisco Bay Area lab linked to doping violations by Giants slugger Barry Bonds and Olympic sprinter Marion Jones) were keeping track of when one could dope and take a test and pass it.

According to the allegations by USADA, Armstrong figured out a way to get a performance benefit from blood-boosting drugs without tripping the wire.

Yes, there are ways to fool the test if you know what you are doing, said Brenna. Im not going to say how.

The charges against Armstrong and five former team officials and team doctors were contained in a June 12 letter from USADA. The letters existence was first revealed by The Washington Post and has been published by the Wall Street Journal.

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Did Lance Try to Fly Under the Radar?

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