1,000 page document labels Lance Armstrong a “serial cheat”

The world of cycling was rocked last night, as the United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) published it’s 1,000 page report on Lance Armstrong, labelling him a “serial” cheat who led “the most sophisticated, professionalised and successful doping programme that sport has ever seen.”

USADA had already banned Armstrong for life and stripped him of his seven Tour de France titles before this report was published, but the document details why they took such action, leaving Armstrong’s reputation in tatters.

Armstrong has always denied doping and his lawyer Sean Breen called the report a “taxpayer-funded tabloid piece rehashing old, disproved, unreliable allegations based largely on axe-grinders, serial perjurers, coerced testimony, sweetheart deals and threat-induced stories”.

In the report, however, USADA claim to have found “proof beyond a reasonable doubt that Lance Armstrong engaged in serial cheating through the use, administration and trafficking of performance-enhancing drugs and methods that Armstrong participated in running in the US Postal Service Team as a doping conspiracy”.

The report continued “It was not enough that his team-mates give maximum effort on the bike, he also required that they adhere to the doping programme outlined for them or be replaced.

“He was not just a part of the doping culture on his team, he enforced and re-enforced it. Armstrong’s use of drugs was extensive and the doping programme on his team, designed in large part to benefit Armstrong, was massive and pervasive.

“Armstrong and his co-conspirators sought to achieve their ambitions through a massive fraud now more fully exposed. So ends one of the most sordid chapters in sports history.”

The report has been sent to the International Cycling Union (UCI), the World Anti-Doping Agency and the World Triathlon Corporation, and it is down to the UCI to decide whether to appeal against or comply with USADA decision to ban and strip Armstrong of his titles.

The editorial unit