Ukrainian rider due to appear before grand jury today
Yaroslav Popovych faces an unexpected appearance before a grand jury today after being previously hit with a subpoena while in the US for the Livestrong Challenge event on October 22nd – 24th.
The Ukrainian rider has been summoned to speak to the grand jury which is investigating alleged doping on the US Postal Service team by Lance Armstrong and others. While Popovych did not compete on that team, he rode in its successor, Discovery Channel, between 2005 and 2007, and also raced alongside Armstrong in 2009 with Astana and this year with RadioShack.
The news of the subpoena was broken by the LA Times, which says it spoke to two unnamed sources to verify the story.
After being served with the summons, Popovych decided to remain in the US and began working with the San Clemente attorney Ken Miller.
Several others who have worked with Armstrong have already been questioned about the alleged doping described by Floyd Landis earlier this year. These include former team-mate Tyler Hamilton, Landis’ former training Allan Lim, who worked with Armstrong this season, and Oakley rep Stephanie McIlvain.
The latter denied all knowledge of doping by Armstrong in an earlier probe, but appeared to have contradicted this testimony in a secretly-recorded phone conversation with Greg LeMond.
This and other recordings are being used as part of the ongoing investigation, which is headed up by Jeff Novitzky. The federal investigator previously played a large role in the BALCO case, which saw Marion Jones and others face prison sentences.
In 2005 Armstrong was reported to have tested positive for EPO during a reanalysis of urine samples from the 1999 Tour de France. However, as there were not corresponding A and B samples, there was no sanction.
He denied all charges, and the UCI ultimately dismissed the claims.
Landis tested positive during the 2006 Tour de France, which he won. He was found to have elevated levels of testosterone in a test taken after a strong breakaway on stage 17, which moved him back into overall contention. He denied the claims for over two years, but confessed this spring and provided details of what he said were widespread doping practices by others.