Lance Armstrong couldn’t fade into the background even if he wanted to.

French newspaper Le Monde came out today with the story that Armstrong admitted to taking performance-enhancing drugs in his cycling years before he was diagnosed with cancer. This is not a new story - a Dallas courtroom heard these accusations in 2005, and Armstrong denied them under oath in a suit against insurance company SCA which, at the time, was refusing to pay him a $5 million premium for his 2004 Tour de France victory. The Dallas court ruled in favor of Armstrong, saying SCA could not deny him the money based on unsubstantiated accusations when no sporting institution had questioned his Tour win.

The accusations are based primarily on the statements of Betsy Andreu, wife of former teammate Frankie Andreu, who testified that Armstrong told them he had taken EPO, testosterone, growth hormones and cortisone. Armstrong said on the stand in Dallas that her statements were based on the fact that she hated him, and Frankie was backing her story in order to support his wife.

Armstrong released a statement publicly dismissing Le Monde’s story, saying the story “is today as absurd and untrue as when it was first circulated years ago. It never happened.” In addition, Armstrong says he suspects WADA’s Dick Pound of having leaked the documents to Le Monde as a form of retribution after the results of the UCI investigation came out last week.

No, this isn’t over by a long shot. What really gets me, though, is that both the L’Equipe story last year and this Le Monde story have come out either just after or just before the Tour… And both of these publications are French. Wouldn’t you think they’d want to avoid overshadowing their country’s big event? Apparently, if that thought even crossed their minds, the idea of bringing down the American who dominated their race for seven straight years is just much more appealing.