20 Oct 2012

UCI to respond to Armstrong case Monday

11:06 am on 20 October 2012

World cycling's governing body says it will give its response to the devastating US Anti-Doping Agency dossier on Lance Armstrong on Monday.

The UCI has been under growing pressure to explain how seven-time Tour de France winner Armstrong, who was described by the USADA as being at the heart of the biggest doping programme in sports history, was able to evade detection for so long.

Claims have also been made that the US rider was protected by senior UCI figures, that a positive blood test was covered up and that he and other members of his US Postal Service team were tipped off about the arrival of drug testers.

The body has to decide whether to endorse or reject the USADA's move to ban Armstrong for life and strip him of his Tour titles, a sanction that currently only has force in the United States.

Rejecting the dossier would likely see the case end up at the Court of Arbitration for Sport.