In a report that runs over 1,000 pages, the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) said Lance Armstrong's Postal Service cycling team ran the most sophisticated, professionalized and successful doping program that sport has ever seen.
The agency said the evidence against Armstrong is overwhelming and consists of testimony from 26 witnesses, including 15 riders with knowledge about his team's doping activities. The report also includes emails, financial payments, scientific data and lab tests that prove Armstrong used, possessed and distributed performance-enhancing drugs.
USADA banned Armstrong from professional competition for life and stripped him of his record-setting seven Tour De France titles. The organization concluded that Armstrong not only used performance-enhancing drugs, but also pushed others to do the same so that he could win.
"It was not enough that his teammates give maximum effort on the bike, he also required that they adhere to the doping program outlined for them or be replaced," the report stated. "He was not just part of the doping culture of his team, he enforced it and re-enforced it. Armstrong's use of drugs was extensive, and the doping program on his team, designed in large part to benefit Armstrong, was massive and pervasive."
The detailed report that contains testimonies from 11 teammates includes a 202-page summary on why the agency has barred him from professional competitions and stripped him of all his seven Tour de France titles. The report is sent to the International Cycling Union, World Anti-Doping Agency and the World Triathlon Corporation.
"The U.S.P.S. Team doping conspiracy was professionally designed to groom and pressure athletes to use dangerous drugs, to evade detection, to ensure its secrecy and ultimately gain an unfair competitive advantage through superior doping practices," the report said. "A program organized by individuals who thought they were above the rules and who still play a major and active role in sport today."
Some of the best cyclists of Armstrong's generation including Tyler Hamilton, Levi Leipheimer, and George Hincapie have admitted before the agency of their own doping and Armstrong's involvement. Other teammates including, Tom Danielson, Christian Vande Velde, Frankie Andreu, Floyd Landis, David Zabriskie, Stephen Swart, Michael Barry and Jonathan Vaughters have testified against him.
