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Lance Armstrong ... (insert caption here) Source: Thao Nguyen / AAP
The Intenational Cycling Union has handed Lance Armstrong a life ban and stripped him of his seven Tour de France titles after recognising the sanctions imposed by United States Anti Doping Agency (USADA).
UCI president Pat McQuaid confirmed USADA's findings in a press conference beamed around the world from the governing body's headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland, on Monday night (EDT).
In a long address to the media, McQuaid called it "a landmark day for cycling" and said that despite all the pain the sport was going through, "cycling has a future".
But he said Armstrong had no place in cycling and that the one time pin-up boy of the sport "deserved to be forgotton by cycling".
McQuaid succeeded Hein Verbruggen as president of world cycling after Armstrong's seventh and final Tour victory in 2005 and is credited with boosting the body's anti-doping program, notably with the pioneering blood passport programme.
The Irishman was under pressure to answer how Armstrong and his teams managed to dope for so long without being detected. But he rejected calls to quit.
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Armstrong's sporting reputation as the cancer survivor who fought back to win cycling's most gruelling and celebrated race has been shattered since the revelations, leading to sponsors leaving him in droves.
There has also been fears of a wider withdrawal of financial backing for the sport after Dutch sponsor Rabobank said it was ending the sponsorship of its professional cycling team after a 17-year association.
The sponsor described professional cycling as "sick" to its core and unlikely to recover in the foreseeable future.
The strongly-worded comments went to the heart of claims of failings at the UCI and in particular to McQuaid, who has been criticised for failing to see the extent of doping within the sport.
Verbruggen, who stepped down in in 2006 but remains honorary president, ran the UCI during Armstrong's golden era - a time when USADA's report says Armstrong and teammates evaded dope tests either by hiding or being tipped off in advance.
The Dutchman has also been accused of protecting Armstrong - even accepting a donation to cover up a positive dope test.
The cyclist's cancer backstory and Tour triumphs from 1999 to 2005 were seen as key to restoring cycling's tattered image after a string of high-profile doping scandals in the 1990s.
Armstrong's Tour victories are unlikely to be re-awarded, the race's director Christian Prudhomme has said. The void avoids further headaches, given that the majority of riders who finished on the podium have also been implicated in doping.
Additional reporting: Justin Davis, AAP
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