Tour de France organisers said on Friday they were against re-attributing Lance Armstrong’s seven wins as the sport’s doping crisis claimed a new victim - Johan Bruyneel, one of the disgraced American’s closest allies.
Armstrong, who denies taking banned substances, has been accused by the US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) of being at the heart of “the most sophisticated, professionalised and successful doping programme” ever seen in sport.
The organisation announced that Armstrong was guilty of doping violations, raising questions about who would replace him at the top of the Tour podium between 1999 and 2005.
Tour director Christian Prudhomme said he was against re-allocating Armstrong’s victories, describing the revelations contained in the USADA’s 202-page “reasoned decision” and more than 1,000 pages of supporting testimony as “damning”.
“What we want is that there is no winner,” he said in his first comments on the report, calling the period a “lost decade” for the sport, which has been trying to clean up its act in recent years.
Prudhomme’s statement comes even though the International Cycling Union (UCI) has not confirmed USADA’s findings but could head off further controversy.