The UCI confirmed this morning that they have sent the relevant paperwork to Lance Armstrong informing the former Tour de France champion that he been stripped of all the titles he won after 1998.
Armstrong has three weeks to appeal that decision – he had said previously that he won't – and once that is enacted it should trigger the mechanism whereby the American is also stripped of the bronze medal he won at the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney
Despite widespread demands to strip Armstrong of that bronze medal, the IOC said at a meeting of their Executive Board last week that legally they were not entitled to do so until Armstrong has been legally informed by the UCO of their decision following the damning evidence of the USADA report.
"The IOC today will not move until then," IOC President Jacques Rogge. "We need to have the situation whereby the UCI notifies officially Mr. Armstrong of the fact that he will be disqualified, declared ineligible and that he should hand over his medal.
"This is a legal obligation not for the IOC but for the International Cycling Union. When he will be notified, Mr Armstrong will have 21 days to launch an appeal if he wishes. It is only after this period of 21 days that the IOC can legally take action."
One of the few titles Armstrong is likely to hold on to is the 1993 World championship he won as a 21 year old, there being no evidence in the USADA report that he was doping at that early stage of his career.
By Brendan Gallagher
Source: www.telegraph.co.uk