• Cycling

UCI strips Armstrong of Tour de France titles

ESPN staff
October 22, 2012

Lance Armstrong has been told he has no place in cycling after the International Cycling Union confirmed he would be stripped of his seven Tour de France titles.

In a press conference in Geneva on Monday, UCI president Pat McQuaid confirmed that the sport's governing body would uphold the United States Anti-Doping Agency's decision to ban Armstrong from professional competition and strip him of all results since August 1, 1998.

"The UCI will ban Lance Armstrong from cycling and the UCI will strip him of his seven Tour de France titles," McQuaid said. "Lance Amstrong has no place in cycling."

The UCI had until the end of October to respond to USADA's findings and announce whether they would accept the findings or reject them and take the case to the Court of Arbitration for Sport.

"This is not the first time that cycling has reached a crossroads or that it has had to begin anew and to engage in the painful process of confronting its past," McQuaid said. "It will do so again with renewed vigour and purpose and stakeholders and fans can be assured that we will find a new path forward.

"The UCI wishes to begin that journey on that path forward today by confirming that it will not appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport and that it will recognise the sanctions that USADA has imposed."

McQuaid, who admitted he was "sickened" by the contents of the 1000 pages of evidence published by USADA, said the management committee would meet next week to discuss whether the UCI would reassign Armstrong's seven Tour titles.

He also confirmed the UCI would also uphold the six-month bans to 11 of Armstrong's former team-mates who testified against him to USADA.

McQuaid said: "The UCI will also recognise the sanctions imposed on the riders who testified against Lance Armstrong; UCI indeed thanks them for telling their stories."

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