Lance Armstrong Formally Stripped Of His Titles By International Cycling Union

'He Has No Place In Cycling'

Lance Armstrong has been formally stripped of his cycling titles, including seven Tour de France wins, by the International Cycling Union (ICU).

The organising body said that it agreed with the findings of the United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA), which earlier in October announced that it had evidence that “the US Postal Service Pro Cycling Team ran the most sophisticated, professionalized and successful doping program that sport has ever seen”.

"Lance Armstrong has no place in cycling," the union's president, Pat McQuaid, said.

Pat McQuaid, the President of the ICU, announces the body's decision

The ICU said it “will disqualify all competitive results achieved by Mr Armstrong from 1 August 1998 thereon”.

A statement issued on Monday said: “The USADA decision explains how riders on the USPS Team showed no inclination to share the full extent of what they knew until they were subpoenaed or called by federal investigators and that their only reason for telling the truth is because the law required them to do so.

“These riders have confronted their past and told their stories. Their accounts of their past provide a shocking insight into the USPS Team where the expression to ‘win at all costs’ was redefined in terms of deceit, intimidation, coercion and evasion.

“The ICU has tested Lance Armstrong 218 times. If Lance Armstrong was able to beat the system then the responsibility for addressing that rests not only with the ICU but also with WADA and all of the other anti-doping agencies who accepted the results.”

Armstrong has had all seven of his Tour de France titles removed

Following the USADA report Nike severed its ties with Armstrong and on Monday Oakley also formerly broke off its relationship with the controversial sportsman.

It said in a statement: “Based on ICU’s decision today and the overwhelming evidence that USADA presented, Oakley has severed its longstanding relationship with Lance Armstrong, effective immediately.

“When Lance joined our family many years ago, he was a symbol of possibility. We are deeply saddened by the outcome, but look forward with hope to athletes and teams of the future who will rekindle that inspiration by racing clean, fair and honest.”

Armstrong has always denied taking performance-enhancing drugs and his lawyer Tim Herman described the USADA report as a “one-sided hatchet job”.

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