The rumor mill is speculating that four US cyclists who would normally be considered for the US Olympic cycling team this summer are not going to race because of some involvement in the Lance Armstrong investigation. This rumor comes from the following statement published by USA Cycling:
USA Cycling has received numerous inquiries regarding the men’s Olympic road team announced yesterday. Prior to the commencement of the Olympic team nomination process, George Hincapie, Levi Leipheimer, Christian Vande Velde and David Zabriskie individually requested that they not be considered for nomination. USA Cycling will not speculate on the reasoning behind their requests and will not have further comment on this topic; any questions related to their decision should be directed to the individual athletes.
It seems very strange that all four of these riders would ask to have their names taken out of the hat. The Washington Post has a quote from Hincapie who purportedly said earlier in the year that he would love to go to his sixth Olympic games this summer. Something certainly changed his tune...
Curiously, all four of the riders rode with Lance's team in the past. Is this a very odd coincidence or is something else going on? If it is a coincidence, the timing couldn't be better to get a rumor going. Not to mention USA Cycling's wording of the press release. The last sentence (underlined above) makes me wonder what they aren't saying...
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