Sheryl Crow witnessed Lance Armstrong receive an illicit blood transfusion while they were dating in 2004, according to "Wheelmen" a book about the disgraced cyclist's extensive doping programs, the New York Daily News reported.
Obtained by Wall Street Journal reporters Reed Albergotti and Vanessa O'Connell, "Wheelmen: Lance Armstrong, the Tour de France, and the Greatest Sports Conspiracy Ever" alleges that Crow, who dated Armstrong from 2003 to 2006, once witnessed the disgraced cyclist receive an illicit blood transfusion.
"Rather than try to hide the transfusion from her, Armstrong was completely open about it," Albergotti and O'Connell wrote according to the Daily News. "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."
According to The Daily News, the book states Crow traveled with Armstrong to Belgium in 2004 to have the procedure, which allows athletes to up their number of oxygen-carrying red blood cells, essentially increasing their endurance.
Crow spoke with a Food and Drug Administration investigator in 2011 in exchange for a proffer protecting her from prosecution. Armstrong was stripped of the seven Tour de France titles he amassed from 1999-2005 and was banned from the sport for life after an October 2012 report from the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency.
The cyclist long denied the claims, but finally admitted to using performance-enhancing drugs during an interview with Oprah Winfrey in January 2013 Armstrong did not face criminal charges when a grand jury dropped the case without explanation in 2012.
The Justice Department is currently suing Armstrong and several members of his inner circle. The lawsuit cites the False Claims Act in an effort to retrieve the tens of millions the U.S. Postal Service paid to Armstrong and his teams.
"Wheelmen" will be released on Tuesday.
