Singer Sheryl Crow was with Lance Armstrong when he went to receive a blood transfusion in 2004 and told federal investigators about it, according to the New York Daily News, citing a book to be released Tuesday.
Crow, 51, and Armstrong, 42, began dating in 2003, got engaged in 2005 and separated in 2006. Crow spoke with investigators in 2011, according to the report.
“Wheelmen: Lance Armstrong, the Tour de France and the Greatest Sports Conspiracy Ever,” a book written by Wall Street Journal reporters, details Crow’s trip to Belgium in Armstrong’s private jet for a 2004 procedure, according to the report.
“Rather than try to hide the transfusion from her, Armstrong was completely open about it,” the authors write. “He trusted that Crow would have no desire to tell the press or anyone else about the team’s doping program. He explained that it was simply part of the sport – that all cyclists were doing the same thing.”
Armstrong has remained in the news since being stripped of his record seven straight Tour de France titles and being banned for life from all competition last year. He admitted to prevalent doping during his career in an interview with Oprah Winfrey in January.
He was stripped of his only Olympic medal, a 2000 bronze, eight months ago but did not return it until September.
A documentary film, “The Armstrong Lie,” was shown at the Toronto Film Festival in September and is set for a limited release in November. The film was originally supposed to be about Armstrong’s comeback out of retirement for the 2009 Tour de France.
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