Tygart received death threats during USADA's Armstrong investigation

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The director of the American Anti-Doping Agency (USADA), Travis Tygart, has confirmed that he has received three death threats since opening a case against Lance Armstrong and several other individuals linked to the former US Postal team. In an exclusive interview with French L'Equipe, Tygart said that security measures inside the USADA headquarters in Colorado Springs have been increased since his predecessor Terry Madden and himself have been threatened.

"Since the Armstrong affair, I've received three death threats, individual initiatives I believe. The FBI is taking care of that."

Tygart also said that the dossier of gathered evidence against Armstrong would be sent to the International Cycling Union (UCI) very soon. "It's imminent," he confirmed. "We will transmit the files at the end of this month."

According to L'Equipe, the information contained in the files will be made public "before the end of the year".

Tygart also revealed that Armstrong could be called to testify in the case against Johan Bruyneel, his former team manager still in charge of the RadioShack-Nissan squad. Facing important doping allegations, the Belgian has chosen to turn to USADA's Anti-Doping Review Board and be heard before the panel in the next couple of months.

The American continued by explaining that USADA did not receive any information from the federal investigation into Armstrong's former team, US Postal, even though this had initially been planned. The fraud investigation was filed last February.

USADA, which has already banned Armstrong and stripped him from his victories since 1998, is acting beyond the eight-year statute of limitations normally applicable within the framework of the World Anti-Doping Code. "The statute of limitations no longer applies [under American law - ed.] if the accusation can prove that, throughout all these years, the athlete who cheated influenced the witnesses who could have testified against him, if he concealed proof or lied under oath. We are certain that this has happened in the Armstrong case, and we'll explain it to the UCI when we'll transmit the dossier," Tygart concluded.