UCI to respond Monday to Armstrong case

20 Oct 2012, 10:28 am   -   Source: AAP
The final word on Lance Armstrong's seven Tour de France titles will come on Monday. (AAP)

The final word on Lance Armstrong's seven Tour de France titles will come on Monday. (AAP)

Lance Armstrong's official status should be known on Monday when cycling's world body responds to the US doping charges against him.

The final word on Lance Armstrong's seven Tour de France titles could come on Monday when cycling's governing body gives its response to the US Anti-Doping Agency report that paints the American as a longtime drug cheat.

The UCI has been studying the 200-page report and has until the end of the month to decide whether to ratify USADA's decision to strip Armstrong of his seven Tour victories or appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport.

USADA banned Armstrong for life and said he should lose his titles because of his involvement in "the most sophisticated, professionalised and successful doping program that sport has ever seen."

In a statement on Friday, the cycling body said UCI President Pat McQuaid will hold a news conference in Geneva on Monday to "inform on the UCI position concerning the USADA decision on the Armstrong case."

The USADA report has already cost Armstrong key sponsors, including Nike and brewer Anheuser-Busch. Armstrong also stepped down on Wednesday as chairman of the Livestrong cancer charity he founded.

The Texan won consecutive Tours from 1999-2005.

Tour director Christian Prudhomme is waiting on the UCI's decision before removing Armstrong's name from the record books as the race prepares to celebrate its 100th edition next year.

Prudhomme said the Tour will have no official winners for the seven races Armstrong won if he is stripped of his victories by the UCI.

That would mark a shift from past doping episodes.

When Alberto Contador was stripped of his 2010 Tour victory for a doping violation, organisers held a ceremony to award the race winner's yellow jersey to Luxembourg's Andy Schleck.

In 2006, Oscar Pereiro was awarded the victory and a place in the record books after the doping disqualification of American Floyd Landis.

USADA also thinks the Tour titles should not be given to other riders who finished on the podium, such was the level of doping during Armstrong's era.

"Twenty of the 21 podium finishers in the Tour de France from 1999 through 2005 have been directly tied to likely doping through admissions, sanctions, public investigations or exceeding the UCI hematocrit threshold," USADA said in its statement.

"Of the 45 podium finishes during the time period between 1996 and 2010, 36 were by riders similarly tainted by doping."

No allegations have been levelled at Australian Cadel Evans who was runner-up in 2007 and `08 before winning the race in 2011.

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