Cycling's ruling body, the UCI, has appointed a Dutch lawyer to investigate newspaper allegations that seven-times Tour de France winner Lance Armstrong had tested positive for drugs in 1999.
Armstrong has denied the allegations published in L'Equipe.
The French newspaper today published an interview with a former doctor of the former US Postal team, for which Armstrong used to ride.
The doctor, Prentice Steffen, was quoted as saying riders from several teams had used the banned blood-boosting drug EPO (erythropoietin) on this year's Tour de France.
According to L'Equipe, six of Armstrong's urine samples collected on the 1999 Tour showed traces of EPO.
"Before taking the start of this year's Tour de France, riders of some teams took EPO," Steffen, who said his source was a team insider he could not name, told L'Equipe.
Steffen said that doctors then took some of the riders' EPO-boosted blood and kept it in special bags so that the riders could undergo blood testing without being caught.
"The blood (containing EPO) was then re-injected before the start of stages. The riders could then compete in the stage with a real advantage".
Steffen said that the UCI doctors doing the blood testing, called 'vampires' by the riders, always came at fixed times in the morning and the blood could safely be re-injected after they had called.
Angered by the allegations about the 1999 Tour, Armstrong said a month ago he might return to racing, but the following week dismissed the idea.
