Less than two weeks after the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency released a report revealing doping allegations and losing nearly all of his endorsements, Lance Armstrong has now lost all seven of his Tour de France titles, as well. The International Cycling Union announced today it had accepted the USADA's findings and decision to ban Armstrong from competition for life, formally stripping him of titles earned between 1999 and 2005. Because so many of the second-place finishers in the events have also been linked to doping allegations, no winners will be named for those years, says Tour de France director Christian Prudhomme.
"We've come too far in the fight against doping to go back to the past," said ICU president Pat McQuaid in a news conference. "Something like this must never happen again."
Armstrong continues to deny the doping allegations but has said he will not contest the charges.
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