French prosecutor shelves case against Armstrong

French prosecutor Philippe Drouet of the court in Annecy has shelved the doping case against American Lance Armstrong. The case, dating back to January 2005, involved certain allegations made against the Tour de France champion in the published book LA Confidentiel, les secrets de Lance Armstrong, co-written by sportswriter David Walsh and former L'Equipe cycling writer Pierre Ballester.

Key witness in the case was Dr. Benoît Nave, a former Volvo-Cannondale Mountain Bike Racing team doctor who treated Armstrong for his back injuries following his bad crash in the 2003 Dauphiné Libéré.

"I have worked on several occasions with Lance Armstrong since October 2002," Nave told L'Equipe in January 2005. "At that time he had already won the Tour four times. We met in San Francisco and he had a nutritional consultation. So there is nothing to hide in all this, and it is always interesting for me to work with people like Armstrong."

According to AGR, after hearing Nave, prosecutor Drouet ruled that there are "no grounds to proceed."