In an affidavit, cyclist Jonathan Vaughters said that late in the 1998 season, Armstrong, Vaughters and Vande Velde all competed in the Vuelta a Espana.
During the race, the affidavit said, Armstrong and Vaughters each confirmed that the other was using EPO. The Vaughters affidavit said Armstrong made himself aware of the red-blood-cell counts of other riders on the team and once kidded Vaughters about how high Vaughters’s counts were.”
“One evening while Vaughters was in Armstrong’s room borrowing Armstrong’s laptop, Armstrong injected himself in front of Vaughters with a syringe used for EPO injections, saying ‘now that you are doing EPO too, you can’t go write a book about it.’ From that point forward, Armstrong was open with Vaughters about his use of EPO.”
Vaughters and Vande Velde both said that at the World Championships at Valkenberg in the Netherlands, “the US riders arrived at their tent near the start of the race to find that Armstrong had asked his wife Kristin to wrap cortisone tablets in tin foil for him and his teammates. Kristin obliged Armstrong’s request by wrapping the pills and handing them to the riders.” According to the affidavits, one of the riders allegedly remarked: “Lance’s wife is rolling joints.”
In an affidavit from Betsy Andreu, the wife of USPS cyclist Frankie Andreu, she recalled dining at a restaurant in Nice in 1999 with Lance and Kristin Armstrong; Kevin Livingston and his fiancee; and Pepe and his girlfriend, Isabella. (Frankie Andreu was at a race and didn’t attend diner.) Betsy Andreu said Pepe was bringing Armstrong EPO and it was easier to cross the border at night. After dinner, Andreu said, Pepe gave Armstrong a brown paper bag. As Armstrong opened a car door for Andreu, he smiled, held up the bag and said, “liquid gold.”
