Del Moral's lawyer claims doctor was banned for not giving evidence against Armstrong

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U.S. Anti-Doping Agency boss Travis Tygart has rubbished claims by Dr Luis Garcia del Moral and his lawyer that he received a lifetime ban because he wouldn't co-operate with the Lance Armstrong investigation.

Del Moral's lawyer, Juan de Dios Crespo Pérez, told the USA Today that they were approached by USADA on the premise of gathering information regarding Armstrong and his alleged doping practices, and not the doctor.

"He declined because it would not be true," said Pérez. "He has no current connection with Lance, so it would not cost him anything to say that, but it would not be true."

Del Moral was the team physician for the US Postal Service Cycling Team from 1999 through 2003. He was accused of helping cyclists including the USPS team members to carry out performance enhancing doping including blood transfusions as well as saline infusions to prevent the doping from being detected by blood value checks. Del Moral was also accused of administering EPO, testosterone, corticosteroids and human growth hormone, all of which are banned by the WADA code.

Del Moral was famously videotaped disposing of the USPS team's medical waste at the 2000 Tour de France, which journalists searched, finding packages of Actovegin, an extract of calf's blood. The incident was investigated by the French authorities, but was eventually closed without action.

In 2011, a visit with Del Moral led Australian Trent Lowe to be sacked from the Garmin team along with his then-director Matt White, although Lowe insisted the visit was for a normal UCI health check.

On July 10, Tygart confirmed to Cyclingnews that Del Moral had accepted his lifetime ban. "The respondents chose not to waste resources by moving forward with the arbitration process, which would only reveal what they already know to be the truth of their doping activity," he said.

According to Del Moral's lawyer, the doctor had "not been involved in cycling since 2003" and that it was "absurd to claim in 2012 without any evidence that he did something wrong."

Speaking to the USA Today, Tygart explained that the doctor and his lawyer were being untruthful.

"Dr. Del Moral is serving a lifetime ban for providing drugs to young cyclists, and nothing he makes up now in an effort to continue the cover-up of the USPS doping conspiracy will deter us from doing our duty to protect the rights of clean athletes and integrity of competition," Tygart said.