Lance Armstrong Stripped Of All Tour De France Titles, Banned For Life

The International Cycling Union on Friday said it would speak with the US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) before officially commenting on Lance Armstrong’s loss of his seven Tour de France titles. The US Anti-Doping Agency had requested that Armstrong’s titles be stripped and that he be banned from the sport.

According to USADA CEO Travis Tygart:

“Any time we have overwhelming proof of doping, our mandate is to initiate the case through the process and see it to conclusion as was done in this case.”

ESPN notes that the UCI, the sport’s governing body, wants the USADA to “submit to the parties concerned (Mr. Armstrong, WADA and UCI) a reasoned decision explaining the action taken.”

The World Anti-Doping Code requires that the USADA submit action paperwork to all parties involved when no hearing will take place.

The USADA announced on Friday that Lance Armstrong has been handed a lifetime ban from the sport and that he would also be forced to forfeit his bronze medal from the 2000 Olympics. Armstrong will also be forced to hand over any other awards, titles, and even cash earnings from the events in which he has competed.

The lifetime ban from the sport comes one year after Lance Armstrong announced his official retirement from the sport of cycling. Armstrong announced this week that he would drop his fight against doping charges. Armstrong has repeatedly pointed to the hundreds of drug tests he passed during his Tour de France stream, which went from 1999 through 2005.

In a statement made to the Associated Press, Armstrong revealed:

“There comes a point in every man’s life when he has to say, ‘Enough is enough.’ For me, that time is now.”

Armstrong then called the investigation an “unconstitutional witch hunt.”

Lance Armstrong further noted:

“I have been dealing with claims that I cheated and had an unfair advantage in winning my seven Tours since 1999. The toll this has taken on my family and my work for our foundation and on me leads me to where I am today — finished with this nonsense.”

The USADA quickly turned around his decision to drop the fight as an admission of guilt.