Are you implying something about Cheryl?

Hm. I looked it up; apparently, the tests were conducted in 2004 - but not announced publicly. And the old samples of five other, unnamed riders tested positive.

Regarding the authenticity of the testing, I found this:

06.09
Dick Pound, head of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) has said that he trusts the findings of the French laboratory whose evidence provides the basis for L'Equipe's allegations that Lance Armstrong used EPO in the 1999 Tour de France.
Speaking to Germany's NetZeitung, Pound said, "After we looked at all the documents in this matter, I see a very high probability that there was performance-enhancing drugs activity."
Asked how trustworthy was the laboratory in Châtenay-Malabry that found traces of EPO in stored urine samples from the 1999 Tour, Pound said the lab was one of the leading centres in the world for investigation of EPO use. "I therefore have no reason to believe that the analysis of the samples was not regular. Yes, the laboratory found EPO traces in many samples. It may be that EPO traces disappear gradually from urine, but it cannot be that no EPO should be in them and then it emerges as if from nowhere."
Pound explained that WADA had not been supplied with any names of the riders whose samples had been tested. "We only got the report from the French laboratory. Our information about Lance Armstrong came from the sport newspaper L'Equipe."
However, Pound admitted that it would be "legally very problematic" for WADA to take any action against Lance Armstrong. (source Cyclingnews.com)

Two old stories also come up in memory. One is former assistant Emily O'Reilly, who claimed that Lance asked her to dispose of used syringes (but didn't look what's in them), and to apply makeup to cover needle marks.

This one is a question of credibility, but for the second, only foolidhness comes as alternative explanation: on the 2004 Tour, Lance mobbed Italian rider Filipo Simeoni, calling him a compulsive liar for doping allegations. But in truth, Simeoni never said anything about Lance: he only destified against an Italian sports doctor, saying the doctor developed a method of EPO doping that evades detection. It was only newspapers who made the connection to Armstrong, who was in contact with that doctor.

_{*Lunatic*, n.
One whose delusions are out of fashion.}

Do note that the newspaper (L'Equipe) is owned by the same company that organises the Tour de France...

There have been several highly critical comments here in France about this "announcement". Le Canard Enchainé said that it was a cheap way for L'Equipe to get publicity in a fairly harmless way (not actually compromising a Tour or threatening any results), and a former Minister for Sports that was extremely tough on doping (Marie-George Buffet, now leader of the Communist Party) said that she did not understand why only one of the dozen runners apparently implicated in the tests was named and not the others, and said that she found such announcement unseemly.

In the long run, we're all dead. John Maynard Keynes

I don't know... I got the impression that nasty chief doper who wouldn't admit it even while all teammates admitted, Virenque, got away with it by now, at least concerning the public opinion. Meanwhile, I disagree that Armstrong doesn't have charisma or panache - he does have it, but maybe not the type liked by the European public.

BTW, what was that about Spain? Do you mean they dope much, or do you mean they come closest to France in fighting doping?

_{*Lunatic*, n.
One whose delusions are out of fashion.}