(Reuters) – Lance Armstrong was “surprised” when the French Anti-Doping Agency asked him for a hair sample during a random test on the seven-times Tour de France champion Tuesday, an AFLD official said.
The test was conducted in the southern French town of Beaulieu-sur-Mer, where the American is training ahead of this weekend’s Milan-San Remo race.
“He was surprised we asked for a hair sample, he asked some questions,” Jean-Pierre Verdy, the AFLD’s operating chief, told Reuters after an AFLD meeting yesterday.
AFLD President Pierre Bordry told a news conference the move was also aimed at showing Armstrong he was “a rider like any other.”
“He must know that he is like everybody else. It is the first time we knew, from press reports, that he was training in France” said Bordry.
Armstrong, who has returned to the saddle after three years in retirement, said on social networking site Twitter on Tuesday that he had his 24th test since announcing his comeback last September.
“Yet another ‘surprise’ anti-doping control, the 24th one. This one from the French authorities. Urine, blood, and hair! Classic…,” he wrote.
