Cycling:Cycling's world governing body the UCI have expressed their concern over the time taken by the US Anti-Doping Agency to release their written judgment on Lance Armstrong, who has already been banned for life and stripped of his seven Tour de France titles.
Usada issued the sanctions against Armstrong on August 24th after the American elected not to contest doping charges brought against him, but the agency confirmed yesterday it was “in the process of finalising” the written reasoned decision in the case and that the report would be submitted to the UCI no later than October 15th.
UCI president Pat McQuaid said in a statement this afternoon: “The UCI had no reason to assume that a full case file did not exist but Usada’s continued failure to produce the decision is now a cause for concern. It is over a month since Usada sanctioned Lance Armstrong. We thought that Usada were better prepared before initiating these proceedings.”
The UCI statement continued: “It seems that it would have been more useful for Usada to have used the time of the Tour de France, the Olympic Games and the Road World Championships to prepare their case in full rather than to make announcements. It is at the very least unusual that Usada would still be gathering evidence against a person after it has found that person guilty.
“The UCI assumes that the reasons for any difficulty in putting the evidence together will be explained in Usada’s decision. The UCI has requested Usada to provide its decision and case file and has learnt of the reported delays through the media and not by any official communication from Usada. The sooner UCI receives the decision and case file the sooner UCI can provide its response.”
Usada chief executive Travis Tygart later released the following statement which read: “It is not surprising that UCI would send a press release out attempting to undermine and question the substance of our case. It is also troubling that they would claim to have had no contact with us which is inaccurate.
“As they know we will be providing them the ‘reasoned decision’ no later than October 15th through the process and at that time the questions contained in their publicly released statement today will be answered.”