The Morning According to Us: Lance Armstrong ... out of the Tour De France?

What's going on here, and what does it say about the nature of suspicion in the world?

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Bunch of mics in his face? Pretty common for this guy.

With Obama in the White House, we're supposed to be past the xenophobia that hated the French and inspired Freedom Fries. But those guys across the pond aren't making it easy. Especially if you believe Lance Armstrong, who says the country probably won't let him race this summer in the Tour de France.

In a video posted over the weekend, Armstrong explains a recent training trip in the South of France. A man was waiting for him at the house Armstrong rents, asking for his blood, urine, and air. It took Armstrong a minute to realize he meant "hair" and about 30 minutes more to let the man in. Armstrong's been tested so often by French officials that he's now wary of any dude in a backpack asking him to pee in a cup. It turns out the guy was legit, a foot soldier for France's anti-doping agency, the A.F.L.D. Armstrong went upstairs, showered, and gave his urine, blood, and a couple hair follicles to the agent. The guy marked in his report that nothing was out of the ordinary while gathering the samples. He went on his way.

Last Thursday Armstrong discovered that the French thought something indeed was out of the ordinary. What was he doing, the French wanted to know, while he was "showering?" Was he switching out his blood, his urine, his hair, for someone else's? Armstrong, in the video, thinks the current investigation will "escalate." It has already. The World Anti-Doping Agency's Gary Wadler says the time Armstrong was afforded to shower was more than enough to cheat a drug test.

That's true. But this test, like the 23 preceding it, came back negative. You can see the exasperation on Armstrong's face in the clip. He's cynical now. He thinks the French will ban him from racing the Tour over this. It's masochistic anyway to race bikes for a living. To put up with this is absurd.

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