Armstrong responds to USADA report

11 of Lance Armstrong's former teammates have testified against him in the US Anti-Doping Agency's report on the US Postal Service doping program.

'OVERWHELMING EVIDENCE': Lance Armstrong faces his US Anti-Doping Agency accusers. Source: AP

LANCE Armstrong's first public words since the release of a report detailing his systemic cheating had little to do with the drug storm that has surrounded him.

Armstrong finally posted on Twitter, hours after the US Anti-Doping Agency released a 1000-page report into the disgraced seven-time Tour de France winner's doping conspiracy.

But his post offered nothing to explain his endemic use of banned substances while he was a professional rider with US Postal Service.

"What am I doing tonight? Hanging with my family, unaffected, and thinking about this (a link to a page detailing the 15th anniversary of the Lance Armstrong Foundation)," Armstrong tweeted.

He then posted a link to a music video for the Elliot Smith song "Coming up roses".

The legendary cyclist engaged in the biggest doping conspiracy in sports history to win the Tour de France seven times, according to the USADA.

Race boss: Lance could have won Hawaiian Ironman

USADA chief executive Travis T. Tygart said the agency had submitted to the International Cycling Union and World Anti-Doping Agency a report on why in August it banned Armstrong for life.

USADA released more than 1000 pages of supporting evidence gathered in a probe of Armstrong and the US Postal Service team.

"The evidence of the US Postal Service Pro Cycling Team-run scheme is overwhelming," Tygart said.

Read the full USADA submission

"The evidence shows beyond any doubt that the US Postal Service Pro Cycling Team ran the most sophisticated, professionalised and successful doping program that sport has ever seen."

That includes testimony from 26 people, 15 of them with knowledge of US Postal riders and doping activities, including George Hincapie, who admitted in a statement he took performance-enhancing drugs.

"It's extremely difficult today to acknowledge that during a part of my career I used banned substances," he said.

Timeline of Armstrong's doping controversies

Armstrong walks out of the Tour de France's anti-doping control bus. Source: AFP

"Early in my professional career, it became clear to me that, given the widespread use of performance enhancing drugs by cyclists at the top of the profession, it was not possible to compete at the highest level without them.

"I deeply regret that choice and sincerely apologise to my family, teammates and fans."

Other former Armstrong teammates who testified include Frankie Andreu, Michael Barry, Tom Danielson, Tyler Hamilton, Floyd Landis, Levi Leipheimer, Stephen Swart, Christian Vande Velde, Jonathan Vaughters and David Zabriskie.

SORRY: Former Lance Armstrong team-mate Christian Vande Velde has issued a statement on the USADA report, describing being ''pressured'' into using banned substances Source: AP

Van de Velde has issued a statement on the USADA report, describing being "pressured" into using banned substances.

"I have failed and I have succeeded in one of the most humbling sports in the world. And today is the most humbling moment of my life," he said.

"As a young pro rider I competed drug-free, not winning but holding my own and achieving decent results.

"Then, one day, I was presented with a choice that to me, at the time, seemed like the only way to continue to follow my dream at the highest level of the sport.

"I gave in and crossed the line, a decision that I deeply regret.

"I was wrong to think I didn't had a choice the fact is that I did, and I chose wrong.

"I won races before doping and after doping.

"Ironically, I never won while doping, I was more or less just treading water. This does not make it OK. I saw the line and I crossed it, myself.

"I am deeply sorry for the decisions I made in the past - to my family, my fans, my peers, to the sport that I love and those in and out of it I'm sorry. I always will be."

"Different categories of eyewitness, documentary, first-hand, scientific, direct and circumstantial evidence reveal conclusive and undeniable proof that brings to the light of day for the first time this systemic, sustained and highly professionalised team-run doping conspiracy," Tygart said.

Armstrong was banned for life by USADA and stripped of his seven Tour de France triumphs from 1999-2005 after declining the chance to challenge the doping charges against him before a USADA arbitration panel.

Armstrong, who has denied any wrongdoing, said he was weary of years of allegations against him and tired of fighting, instead hoping to focus on his Livestrong foundation and anti-cancer fundraising activities.

The decision not to press ahead with a defense against the charges and take the chance to contest the evidence against him came after Armstrong lost a legal fight in US court to challenge USADA's system of hearing doping appeals.

World cycling's governing body is considering an amnesty for riders to confess to doping, after the Lance Armstrong ban. Source: AFP

"Lance Armstrong was given the same opportunity to come forward and be part of the solution. He rejected it," Tygart said.

"Instead he exercised his legal right not to contest the evidence and knowingly accepted the imposition of a ban from recognised competition for life and disqualification of his competitive results from 1998 forward."

The UCI has challenged USADA's authority to bring charges against Armstrong but WADA backed USADA's jurisdiction and power to press the case.

Armstrong holds a placard reading 'six' for six-straight wins of the Tour de France. Source: AP

The UCI could appeal the sanctions against Armstrong to the Court of Arbitration for Sport.

Three US Postal team members - director Johan Bruyneel, doctor Pedro Celaya and trainer Jose Marti - have chosen to contest the charges and face a public hearing on the matter, likely later this year.

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