Lance Armstrong stripped of Tour de France titles
Lance Armstrong is stripped of seven Tour de France titles as cycling’s world governing body, the UCI, accepts the findings of the US Anti-Doping Agency’s investigation.
UCI President Pat McQuaid announced that the federation accepted the USADA’s report on Armstrong and would not appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport.
The decision clears the way for Tour de France organisers to officially remove Armstrong’s name from the record books, erasing his consecutive victories from 1999-2005.
Tour director Christian Prudhomme has said the race would go along with whatever cycling’s governing body decides and will have no official winners for those years.
USADA said Armstrong should be banned and stripped of his Tour titles for “the most sophisticated, professionalised and successful doping programme that sport has ever seen” within his US Postal Service and Discovery Channel teams.
The USADA report said Armstrong and his teams used steroids, the blood booster EPO, and blood transfusions. The report included statements from 11 former teammates who testified against Armstrong.
Armstrong denies doping, saying he passed hundreds of drug tests. But he chose not to fight USADA in one of the agency’s arbitration hearings, arguing the process was biased against him.
Former Armstrong team director Johan Bruyneel is also facing doping charges, but he is challenging the USADA case in arbitration.