USADA officially strips 7 Tour de France titles from Lance Armstrong

(CBS/AP) The U.S. Anti-Doping Agency erased 14 years of Lance Armstrong's career Friday — including his record seven Tour de France titles — and banned him for life from the sport that made him a hero to millions of cancer survivors after concluding he used banned substances.

USADA said it expected cycling's governing body to take similar action, but the International Cycling Union was measured in its response, saying it first wanted a full explanation on why Armstrong should relinquish Tour titles he won from 1999 through 2005.

Lance Armstrong subject to lifetime ban and fan fallout
If Lance Armstrong loses Tour de France titles, who gets them?

The Amaury Sport Organization that runs the world's most prestigious cycling race said it would not comment until hearing from the UCI and USADA, which contends the cycling body is bound by the World Anti-Doping Code to strip Armstrong of one of the most incredible achievements in sports.

Armstrong, who retired a year ago, said Thursday that he would no longer challenge USADA and declined to exercise his last option by entering arbitration. He denied again that he ever took banned substances in his career, calling USADA's investigation a "witch hunt" without a shred of physical evidence.

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Lance Armstrong

Appearing on "CBS This Morning" Friday, CBS News chief investigative correspondent Armen Keteyian said the original charges brought against Armstrong in June were based on "non-analytical evidence" that he used performance enhancing drugs. This evidence reportedly included testimony from several former teammates, including Tyler Hamilton who told "60 Minutes" that he frequently saw Armstrong inject "EPO," a banned naturally occurring hormone known as a blood booster.

He is now officially a drug cheat in the eyes of his nation's doping agency.

"Nobody wins when an athlete decides to cheat with dangerous performance-enhancing drugs, but clean athletes at every level expect those of us here on their behalf, to pursue the truth to ensure the win-at-all-cost culture does not permanently overtake fair, honest competition" said USADA chief executive 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."

Tygart said the UCI was "bound to recognize our decision and impose it."

"They have no choice but to strip the titles under the code," he said.

The UCI and USADA have engaged in a turf war over who should prosecute allegations against Armstrong. The UCI event backed Armstrong's failed legal challenge to USADA's authority, and it cited the same World Anti-Doping Code in saying that it wanted to hear more from the American agency.

"As USADA has claimed jurisdiction in the case the UCI expects that it will issue a reasoned decision" explaining the action taken, the Switzerland-based organization said in a statement. It said legal procedures obliged USADA to fulfill this demand in cases "where no hearing occurs."

The International Olympic Committee said Friday it will await decisions by USADA and UCI before taking any steps against Armstrong, who won a bronze medal at the 2000 Sydney Games. Besides the disqualifications, Armstrong will forfeit any medals, winnings, points and prizes, USADA said, but it is the lost titles that will be part of his legacy.

Every one of Armstrong's competitive races from Aug. 1, 1998, have been vacated by USADA, recognized by Congress as the official anti-doping agency for Olympic sports in the United States. Its staff joined a federal criminal investigation of Armstrong that ended earlier this year with no charges being filed.

USADA, which announced its investigation in June, said its evidence came from more than a dozen witnesses "who agreed to testify and provide evidence about their first-hand experience and/or knowledge of the doping activity of those involved in the USPS conspiracy," a reference to Armstrong's former U.S. Postal Service cycling team.

The unidentified witnesses said they knew or had been told by Armstrong himself that he had "used EPO, blood transfusions, testosterone and cortisone" from before 1998 through 2005, and that he had previously used EPO, testosterone and Human Growth Hormone through 1996, USADA said. Armstrong also allegedly handed out doping products and encouraged banned methods — and even used "blood manipulation including EPO or blood transfusions" during his 2009 comeback race on the Tour.

In all, USADA said up to 10 former Armstrong teammates were set to testify against him. Included in the case were e-mails sent by Floyd Landis, who was stripped of the 2006 Tour de France title for doping, describing an elaborate doping program on Armstrong's Postal Service teams, and Hamilton's interview with "60 Minutes" claiming had personal knowledge of Armstrong doping. (Watch interview below).

Had Armstrong chosen to pursue arbitration, USADA said, all the evidence would have been available for him to challenge.

"He chose not to do this knowing these sanctions would immediately be put into place," the statement said.

Armstrong's longtime coach, Johan Bruyneel, came to his defense and said he was the victim of an "unjust" legal case.

"I'm disappointed for Lance and for cycling in general that things have reached a stage where Lance feels that he has had enough and is no longer willing to participate in USADA's campaign against him," Bruyneel wrote on his personal website. "Lance has never withdrawn from a fair fight in his life so his decision today underlines what an unjust process this has been."

The Belgian, who manages the Radioshack Nissan-Trek team, has his own legal battle with USADA. He has opted for arbitration to fight charges that he led doping programs for Armstrong's teams.

Armstrong clearly knew his legacy would be blemished by his decision. But he said he has grown tired of defending himself in a seemingly never-ending fight against charges that he doped while piling up more Tour victories than anyone ever. He has consistently pointed to the hundreds of drug tests that he passed as proof of his innocence during his extraordinary run of Tour titles.

"There comes a point in every man's life when he has to say, `Enough is enough.' For me, that time is now," Armstrong said Thursday night, hours before the deadline to enter arbitration.

"Today I turn the page. I will no longer address this issue, regardless of the circumstances," he said. "I will commit myself to the work I began before ever winning a single Tour de France title: serving people and families affected by cancer, especially those in underserved communities."

Although he had already been crowned a world champion and won individual stages at the Tour de France, Armstrong was still relatively unknown in the U.S. until he won the epic race for the first time in 1999. It was the ultimate comeback tale: When diagnosed with cancer, doctors had given him less than a 50 percent chance of survival before surgery and brutal cycles of chemotherapy saved his life.

Armstrong's riveting victories, his work for cancer awareness and his gossip-page romances with rocker Sheryl Crow, fashion designer Tory Burch and actress Kate Hudson made him a figure who transcended sports.

His dominance of the Tour de France elevated the sport's popularity in the U.S. to unprecedented levels. His story and success helped sell millions of the "Livestrong" plastic yellow wrist bracelets, and enabled him to enlist lawmakers and global policymakers to promote cancer awareness and research. His Lance Armstrong Foundation has raised nearly $500 million since its founding in 1997.

Jeffery Gervey, chairman of the foundation, issued a statement of support.

"Faced with a biased process whose outcome seems predetermined, Lance chose to put his family and his foundation first," Gervey said. "The leadership of the Lance Armstrong Foundation remain incredibly proud of our founder's achievements, both on and off the bike."

Questions surfaced even as Armstrong was on his way to his first Tour victory. He was leading the 1999 race when a trace amount of a banned anti-inflammatory corticosteroid was found in his urine; cycling officials said he was authorized to use a small amount of a cream to treat saddle sores.

After Armstrong's second victory in 2000, French judicial officials investigated his Postal Service team for drug use. That investigation ended with no charges, but the allegations kept coming.

Others close to Armstrong were caught up in the investigations, too: Bruyneel, the coach of Armstrong's teams, and three members of the medical staff and a consultant were also charged. Bruyneel is taking his case to arbitration, while two medical team staffers and consulting doctor Michele Ferrari didn't formally contest the charges and were issued lifetime bans by USADA. Ferrari later said he was innocent.

Armstrong was criticized for his relationship with Ferrari, who was banned by Italian authorities over doping charges in 2002. Former personal and team assistants accused Armstrong of having steroids in an apartment in Spain and disposing of syringes that were used for injections.

In 2004, a Dallas-based promotions company initially refused to pay him a $5 million bonus for winning his sixth Tour de France because it wanted to investigate allegations raised by media in Europe. Testimony in that case included former teammate Frankie Andreu and his wife, Betsy, saying Armstrong told doctors during his 1996 cancer treatments that he had taken a cornucopia of steroids and performance-enhancing drugs.

Armstrong retired in 2005 and almost immediately considered a comeback before deciding to stay on the sidelines — in part because he didn't want to keep answering doping questions. Three years later, Armstrong was 36 and itching to ride again. He came back to finish third in the 2009 Tour de France.

Armstrong raced again in 2010 under the cloud of the federal investigation. Early last year, he quit for good, making a brief return as a triathlete until the USADA investigation shut him down.

"He had a right to contest the charges," WADA President John Fahey said. "He chose not to. The simple fact is that his refusal to examine the evidence means the charges had substance in them."

[TeamTDublin]

News agencies: please stop saying the USADA has stripped him of titles. They do not have the authority to do so. UCI officially notified USADA that they had the sole authority to do so. They may go back on that statement but at this point Lance Armstrong is officially, in every way, the tour winner and title holder. UCI had completed an investigation with WADA and have concluded that they have no evidence to remove the titles. Either they now admit that their process is flawed, or there is some new credible physical evidence they had not considered. This power struggle between national and international sport agencies is the real story here... Dig in CBS!

[nbenn514]

The USADA can't "officially" strip any cyclist of any professional international titles. They can recommend through their agreements that the title giver rescind them. But they can't do it and to say they have is a flagrant lie. The International Cycling Union has asked the USADA as per their agreement, for a "reasoned explanation" as to why this action should be taken. If the ICU doesn't agree with it, Lance's titles will stand. And the ICU won't agree with it because their nose is out of joint because they've said all along they're the ones with jurisdiction in this case. No way will they kowtow to some podunk U.S. junk organization.

[treehgr07]

accusations by people who were actually found to have been doping does not actually make such statements reliable. Such people have already proven themselves to be cheats and liars. This is ridiculous. Lance will always be the winner of those titles.

[SUZAMBA]

They weren't going to be happy until they, in their own little minds, found a way to discredit Lance. Show me the real proof, since last I heard, they had none.

[ssporleder]

It turns out many of the second place finishers were "convicted" dopers themselves!!



http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-400_162-57499741/if-lance-armstrong-loses-tour-de-france-titles-who-gets-them/

[vielmann]

No evidence and a ton of accusations. Apparently anyone's word is good enough, despite the numerous tests that were administered. I would have done the same thing. Nothing is that important that one should put his/her life on hold to suit every loser and/or criminal accuser.

[moveoverr]

Having followed this closely from the beginning, I believed he was guilty from the first accusation. This verdict should have come years ago.

[Calltwoarms]

It's embarrassing to be an American when idiots like Floyd Landis testify against a true champion because he failed his drug tests in 2005. Landis was a mediocre rider and could never come close to Lance Armstrong to the only way he could level the playing field was to create a story about Lance. No one has ever tested Lance and gotten a positive result, EVER!

Tygart must have very low standards of proof when he'll take the word of a known cheat to prove that Lance was using performance enhancing drugs. Even though Lance never failed a test in his career. Who is more likely to lie, the rider that failed his drug tests (Landis) or Lance, who has never failed a drug test?

[themanfrombrum]

This is garbage reporting. Don't believe a word of it. He is a great sportsman.

[habusteve]

This goes top show all of us how incompetent the USADA really is.No one can even put any amount of credence in their testing or their motives when testing any athlete!