USADA strips Armstrong of Tour titles, adds lifetime ban

Colorado Springs, CO (Sports Network) - The United States Anti-Doping Agency has disqualified all of Lance Armstrong's results dating back to 1998, including each of his seven Tour de France victories, and issued the cycling star a lifetime ban for his alleged involvement in a doping conspiracy.

Armstrong, on Thursday night, said he would not continue his fight against USADA in the wake of the agency's allegations. He had the right to move forward with an arbitration process, but decided against it.

The USADA release on Friday said Armstrong engaged in doping violations from at least Aug. 1, 1998 and participated in a conspiracy to cover up his actions. The Texan won his seven Tour de France titles in succession from 1999-2005. He battled doping allegations throughout his incredible run and never failed a drug test.

"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 CEO Travis T. Tygart in a statement Friday. "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."

Armstrong could have contested the evidence, but on Thursday said any hearing with USADA would have been "one-sided and unfair," and called Tygart's investigation a "witch hunt."

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