Teammates to testify against Lance Armstrong

CADEL Evans' Tour de France guardian angel is refusing to comment on claims he confessed to doping with Lance Armstrong.

AMERICAN George Hincapie - the man described by Cadel Evans as his Tour de France guardian angel - is refusing to comment on claims he has confessed to doping with Lance Armstrong.

Dutch media is reporting Hincapie and three other US riders allegedly admitted to doping and will be banned at the end of the season for six months.

Hincapie downplayed the controversy as he prepared for stage five from Rouen to Saint-Quentin.

"I'm just disappointed this is being brought up once again," Hincapie said.

Phil Anderson names four stages that will decide the Tour

"I've always tried to do the right thing for the sport. Right now I'm here to do my job and I'm going to try and focus on that.

"BMC's got nothing to do with this, Cadel is obviously here to try and win the Tour and I'm going to try and help him do that."

Asked if he had spoken recently to Armstrong, Hincapie said he had not.

BMC manager Jim Ochowicz said the team had not received formal notice of anything relating to the US Anti-Doping Agency's investigation of seven-time Tour champion Armstrong.

"We've received not any notification from any authority about this issue at all," Ochowicz said.

"So therefore, we have no comment.

"George is here to race the Tour de France and that's what he's doin and just like yesterday morning, he's preparing for today's race.

"We've received no official confirmation or notices from anybody."

Hincapie refuses to comment on claims

Hincapie, 39, has already indicated he will retire at the end of the year after contesting a record 17th Tour de France.

Armstrong has been charged by the USADA of running a clandestine doping ring with five other men for much of his career.

If found guilty, the Texan almost certainly will be stripped of his seven Tour de France victories.

Hincapie has ridden on nine winning Tour teams - seven with Armstrong and one each with Evans and Alberto Contador, who is serving a suspension for doping offences.

Hincapie refused to comment on the explosive claims ahead of tonight's (last night's) sixth stage from Rouen to Saint-Quentin.

"I'm here to race the Tour de France," he said. "I'm here to help Cadel win the Tour."

Hincapie is one of four former Armstrong team-mates contesting the Tour who are alleged to have confessed to doping and testified against the seven-time Tour de France winner, according to De Telegraaf.

Hincapie, Levi Leipheimer, Christian Vande Velde and David Zabriskie are said to have given evidence in the USADA investigation.

All four recently asked not to be considered for the London Olympic Games.

Garmin-Sharp team boss Jonathan Vaughters was also named in the De Telegraaf report but it is not clear whether he will face suspension.

"Miraculously, USADA has arranged for the suspensions to begin at the start at the end of the season so that they are able to race both the Tour de France and the Vuelta a Espana," the article states.

Armstrong was last month charged with doping based on evidence gathered in the investigation into potential doping on the United States Postal Service (USPS) (1996-2004), Discovery Channel (2005-2007), Astana (2009) and RadioShack (2010) cycling teams.

Johan Bruyneel, trainer Pepe Marti and doctors Pedro Celaye, Luis Garcia del Moral and Michele Ferrari are also accused of a variety of doping violations.

These include the administration of doping products, trafficking, assisting and abetting and covering up.

Within the 15-page letter detailing the charges, USADA pointed to 10 witnesses to the alleged conduct, made up of cyclists and cycling team employees.

Those cycling witnesses are believed to be Hincapie, Leipheimer, Vande Velde and Zabriskie.