Lance Armstrong's understanding of performance-enhancing drugs allowed him to not only beat drug tests but continue to deny for years that he'd taken illegal substances. The longtime star cyclist, who's banned from the sport for life and was stripped of his seven Tour de France titles, said he took advantage of the fact that the drugs don't stay in the bloodstream for long, Yahoo Sports reports. So in anticipation of a test, Armstrong said, "you can just do the math." Armstrong made the comments in an appearance on Bill Maher's Club Random podcast. "You would foil the system," Armstrong said.
While saying he wasn't trying to justify his past comments, Armstrong maintained he was able to truthfully claim he'd never flunked a drug test. "I've been tested 500 times, and I've never failed a drug test" was a standard answer, he said. The key was EPO, he said, which stimulates red blood cell production, per the New York Post. "The truth of all of this is some of these substances, primarily the one that is the most beneficial, has a four-hour half life," Armstrong said. He compared EPO's characteristics with that of other prohibited drugs. "So, certain substances, whether it be cannabis or anabolics [steroids] or whatever have much longer half lives," he said. "You can smoke that joint and go to work, driving your tractor, or whatever, in two weeks and test positive because the half life is much longer." (More Lance Armstrong stories.)
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