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| Inquiry into 'tattooed guy' put Lan |
| Inquiry into 'tattooed guy' put Lance Armstrong case in motion
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| UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
, 18-October-2012
6:12:16 AM |
| The long road to Lance Armstrong's downfall began here, across the world from the French Alps where he climbed to the pinnacle of cycling, at a strip-mall tattoo parlor in the foothills east of Los Angeles.
Covered in ink from his legs to his neck, Kayle Leogrande, the owner of this shop, competed full time as a professional cyclist for only a couple of years. He met Armstrong only once, he said, at a 2005 race in Ojai, Calif.
"I talked to him briefly after the race," Leogrande, now 35, said. "I'm sure he thought, 'Who is this stupid tattooed guy?' "
But whether Armstrong remembered this tattooed guy or not, their fates would soon become intertwined.
Four years ago, the United States Anti-Doping Agency suspended Leogrande for using a blood-boosting hormone known as EPO. His case grew into the lengthy investigation that culminated in Armstrong's lifetime ban from the sport.
"When I see what's going on with Lance now, I have to laugh to myself a little bit," Leogrande said as he sat in his shop this week, still dumbfounded that he played a pivotal role in the fall of one of the most accomplished cyclists in history.
Travis Tygart, chief executive of the antidoping agency, said Leogrande's doping sparked a series of events that led the agency and federal investigators to Armstrong and his United States Postal Service team.
"Without Leogrande, who knows, the Armstrong investigation maybe never would have happened," Tygart said.
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