Last week, Lance Armstrong announced he would not contest performance enhancing charges against him by the United States Anti-Doping Agency. New reports revealed federal agents interview Armstrong’s former fiancé Sheryl Crow, which is leading many to suspect could have been the smoking gun.
The seven-time Tour de France winner was stripped of his titles and received a lifetime ban from the sport. While Armstrong maintains his innocence, many questioned why the most dominant athlete in sports would not attempt to clear his name. According to the New York Daily News, Crow was subpoenaed in late 2011 in the agency’s two-year investigation.
After battling steroid allegations for the majority of his career, Armstrong said, “There comes a point in every man’s life when he has to say, ‘Enough is enough’. For me, that time is now.” This week, Armstrong’s former teammate Tyler Hamilton is releasing a memoir,“The Secret Race: Inside the Hidden World of the Tour de France, Doping, Cover-ups and Winning at All Costs.”
In it, Hamilton alleges Crow stayed in an apartment in Girona, Spain that Armstrong used to store performance-enhancing drugs to teammates before major races. Crow’s attorney, Jay Cooper told the Daily Mail, “I’m not going to comment one way or the other.”
Crow and Armstrong began dating in 2003 before announcing their engagement in September 2005. The couple broke up in February 2006, just after Armstrong won his 7th Tour de France title and subsequently retiring from the sport.