Anti-doping body wants probe to restore cycling's name

WASHINGTON (AFP) –

Lance Armstrongs speaks during a news conference by the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network and LIVESTRONG on March 24, 2011. The head of the US anti-doping body has called for a truth commission to uncover drug cheats in cycling, saying that punishing Lance Armstrong is not nearly enough to restore its credibility.

The head of the US anti-doping body called on Monday for a truth commission to uncover drug cheats in cycling, saying that punishing Lance Armstrong is not nearly enough to restore its credibility.

“It is essential that an independent and meaningful Truth and Reconciliation Commission be established so that the sport can fully unshackle itself from the past,” USADA chairman Travis Tygart said in a statement.

It came after the International Cycling Union endorsed a US Anti-Doping Agency decision to erase the rider’s entire career after August 1998.

UCI president Pat McQuaid called the scandal “the biggest crisis” the sport had ever faced and the world body said it would strip Armstrong of virtually every result he had achieved.

Earlier this month, month the US body released a devastating 202-page dossier on Armstrong, with more than 1,000 pages of supporting testimony on how he was at the heart of the biggest doping program in the history of sport.

In his statement on Monday, Tygart said acting against Armstrong is not enough.

“There are many more details of doping that are hidden, many more doping doctors, and corrupt team directors and the omerta has not yet been fully broken,” he said.

Tygart said punishing Armstrong and riders who came forward to talk about his doping activities cannot be seen as “penance for an era of pervasive doping.”

“There must be more action to combat the system that took over the sport,” Tygart said, proposing a panel to receive confessions from dopers that have not yet come forward.

“Only an independent Truth and Reconciliation Commission can fully start cycling on the path toward true reform and provide hope for a complete break from the past.”