Armstrong's Tour titles stripped

Lance Armstrong was stripped of his seven Tour de France titles and banned for life after the International Cycling Union (UCI) ratified the United States Anti-Doping Agency's (USADA) sanctions against the American.

"Lance Armstrong has no place in cycling," UCI President Pat McQuaid told a news conference as he outlined how cycling would have to start again.

"The UCI wishes to begin that journey on that path forward today by confirming that it will not appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport and that it will recognize the sanction that USADA has imposed."

On October 10, USADA published a report into Armstrong which alleged the now retired American rider had been involved in the "most sophisticated, professionalized and successful doping program sport has ever seen".

Armstrong, 41, had previously elected not to contest USADA charges, prompting USADA to propose his punishment pending confirmation from cycling's world governing body.

Former Armstrong team mates at his U.S. Postal and Discovery Channel outfits, where he won his seven straight Tour titles from 1999 to 2005, testified against him and themselves and were given reduced bans by the American authorities.

Armstrong, once widely accepted as one of the greatest cyclists of all time given he fought back from cancer to dominate the sport, has always denied doping and says he has never failed a doping test.

He said he had stopped contesting the charges after years of probes and rum ours because "there comes a point in every man's life when he has to say, 'Enough is enough'".