Lance Armstrong: federation president says he‘deserves to be forgotten in cycling,’

In announcing the decision at a news conference in Geneva, Pat McQuaid, president of the International Cycling Federation (UCI), was unstinting in his condemnation of Armstrong's pattern of doping, deceit and bullying USADA had documented.

"Lance Armstrong has no place in cycling, and he deserves to be forgotten in cycling," said McQuaid, also a former competitive cyclist. "Make no mistake, it's a catastrophe for him, and he has to face up to that."

Details of Doping Scheme Paint Armstrong as Leader

To start what was deemed a new and better doping strategy, Lance Armstrong and two of his teammates on the United States Postal Service cycling squad flew on a private jet to Valencia, Spain, in June 2000, to have blood extracted. In a hotel room there, two doctors and the team’s manager stood by to see their plan unfold, watching the blood of their best riders drip into plastic bags.

The next month, during the Tour de France, the cyclists lay on beds with those blood bags affixed to the wall. They shivered as the cool blood re-entered their bodies. The reinfused blood would boost the riders’ oxygen-carrying capacity and improve stamina during the second of Armstrong’s seven Tour wins.