USADA hails UCI's 'right decision' in Armstrong case

Washington - Cycling’s governing body UCI has made “the right decision” to strip Lance Armstrong of his seven Tour de France titles, US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) chief Travis Tygart has said.

The International Cycling Union (UCI) Monday ratified USADA’s ruling over the Armstrong case which effectively erased all his results dating back to Aug 1, 1998 including seven Tour titles between 1999 and 2005 and banned him for life, reports Xinhua.

“Today, the UCI made the right decision in the Lance Armstrong case. Despite its prior opposition to USADA’s investigation into doping on the US Postal Service cycling team and within the sport, USADA is glad that the UCI finally reversed course in this case and has made the credible decision available to it,” said USADA CEO Tygart in a statement Monday.

USADA gave Armstrong the punishments in August and Oct 10 released a detailed report, which included witness testimony from 11 former teammates in US Postal cycling team and Discovery cycling team.

The report accused Armstrong of cheating through the use of EPO, blood doping and other drugs and pushing his teammates to do the same.

Tygart, however, said the Armstrong conviction was not the end of story but the tip of the iceberg.

“This determination to uphold USADA’s decision on the US Postal Services case does not by itself clean up cycling nor does it ensure the sport has moved past the obstacles that allowed doping to flourish in the age of EPO and blood transfusions.