UCI may not appeal Lance Armstrong ban

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There is no appeal in the works by the UCI over the lifetime ban of Lance Armstrong, and the nullification of his results imposed by the US Anti-Doping Agency, Reuters reported today.

UCI president Pat McQuaid said he is still waiting to see the full dossier from USADA, which in June charged Armstrong and five associates from the US Postal Service team with doping, trafficking and conspiracy to cover up widespread doping activities.

Armstrong chose not to take the case to arbitration, effectively accepting the lifetime ban and having his seven Tour de France titles stripped.

"The UCI has no reason to assume that a full case file does not exist. They have a full case file so let them provide the full case file," McQuaid said.

There had been some speculation that the UCI would take its objections over being usurped as results management authority in this case by USADA to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), but McQuaid countered those ideas, stating, "unless the USADA's decision and case file give serious reasons to do otherwise, the UCI has no intention to appeal to CAS or not to recognize the USADA's sanctions on Lance Armstrong.

"We need to examine the decision and the file in order to deal with it properly and this is going to take some time. However, I can assure you that this will be prioritized."

McQuaid may, however, be looking into further is allegations that riders gave their testimony against Armstrong in a deal with USADA for a reduced sanction over past doping admissions.

Although the names of the riders who testified are yet to be made public, McQuaid said he would look into statements made by Garmin-Sharp manager Jonathan Vaughters, who wrote in the Cyclingnews forums that several of his riders had doped in the past, including Tom Danielson, David Zabriskie and Christian Vande Velde.

"We need to see if Jonathan Vaughters' accusations have any substance so we can see if we take action against these riders," said McQuaid.