Cycling: Company withholding $5 million bonus for Armstrong

By Jon Herskovitz
DALLAS, Sept 24 (Reuters) - A Dallas company that specializes in underwriting prize money is withholding a $5 million bonus to Lance Armstrong until it investigates claims the Tour de France champion used performance-enhancing drugs.
SCA Promotions Inc. said it will wait to pay the bonus to Armstrong for his sixth Tour victory amid claims in the unauthorized biography "LA Confidential: The Secrets of Lance Armstrong" that the American used banned drugs.
The book, written by journalists Pierre Ballester and David Walsh, contains statements from a former masseuse for Armstrong's U.S. Postal team who made the doping allegations against the American cyclist.
Armstrong and his sponsors have vigorously denied the claims, saying the Texan has passed every drug test given to him.
They sought injunctions against the book in French courts, but in July, a Paris appeals court turned down a request by Armstrong asking that the book include his outright denial of the allegations.