Cycling: Armstrong Mistake Admitted

The head of medical services at the International Cycling Union (UCI), Dr Mario Zorzoli, yesterday announced that he was temporarily stepping down after the UCI confirmed that a member of its staff had released confidential documents at the heart of the controversy over Lance Armstrong's alleged positive drug tests.

"Dr Zorzoli himself requested that he should be suspended until the matter is cleared up," a representative of the governing body said yesterday. Zorzoli's duties include supervising the UCI's blood-testing programme. The UCI yesterday confirmed that all 15 of Armstrong's anti-doping control forms from the 1999 Tour de France had been passed to the journalist Damien Ressiot with the American rider's approval. Initially it had stated that only one of the forms had been released.

Ressiot was investigating whether Armstrong had clearance to take medicines on the banned list as part of his cancer treatment, but he also used the barcodes on the forms to link Armstrong with positive tests for erythropoietin, which the Texan denies using. The admission is embarrassing for the UCI, which had initially denied releasing all the forms.