UCI (Switzerland), LE FIGARO (France)
GENEVA – The International Cycling Union (UCI) said it will recognize the United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA)”s sanctions against Lance Armstrong, thus stripping the former champion of his seven Tour de France titles and banning him from cycling for life.
International Cycling Union president Pat McQuaid revealed Monday that the UCI had received USADA’s 200-page report last week, and had chosen not to take the case to the Court of Arbitration, thereby backing the life ban and revoking the Tour de France titles that had been the centerpiece achievement of Armstrong’s career.
McQuaid: “Lance Armstrong deserves to be forgotten from cycling.”
— BBC Sport (@BBCSport) October 22, 2012
Le Figaro notes that UCI has not yet reached a decision concerning the other cyclists involved in the doping scandal. The French daily notes that Christian Prudhomme, the race director the Tour de France, said the seven victories would not be given to the runners-up because so many of them were also involved in doping. McQuaid said this question still needed further debate, and that a decision would be made on Friday.
Armstrong was charged in June with using forbidden performance-enhancing drugs and blood transfusions, as well as encouraging doping among his teammates.
The president of the cycling union declared that Armstrong “has no place in cycling.”
Last week, virtually all of Armstrong’s major sponsors broke ties with the Texan, who has also stepped down as chairman from the Livestrong foundation he’d founded to help fight cancer, a disease he was cured from earlier in his career.
In a Nike commercial in 2001, Armstrong joked “Everybody wants to know what I am on. What am I on? I’m on my bike, busting my ass, six hours a day. What are you on?”
