Lance Armstrong Doping Update: Cyclist To Be Stripped Of Tour De France Titles

Lance Armstrong won the Tour de France a record seven consecutive times, now it seems the arduous training he endured could have been wasted efforts. The cyclist is reportedly being banned from the sport for life after refusing to fight drug allegations by the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency.

"He will be banned for life and loss of results since Aug. 1, 1998," Annie Skinner, a USADA spokeswoman, revealed in an email just last night. Also noting, an official statement will be issued today.

Just yesterday, Armstrong refused a hearing to settle the agency's accusations that he used and trafficked banned substances - an act he referred to as an "unconstitutional witch hunt."

"If I thought for one moment that by participating in USADA's process I could confront these allegations in a fair setting and -- once and for all -- put these charges to rest, I would jump at the chance," Armstrong said in a separate statement. "But I refuse to participate in a process that is so one-sided and unfair."

Armstrong, who is a survivor of testicular cancer, won the Tour de France every year from 1999 to 2005 - a record that has yet to be broken by any other cyclist.

"This is extremely damaging for cycling and very damaging for the Tour de France," Nigel Currie, director of London-based sports marketing agency brandRapport, said in a telephone interview today. "Armstrong has been such a big part of the Tour de France for the past 20 years, and took it to new levels for the American market."

According to Armstrong, he has never failed a drug test and has adamantly denied ever using banned substances to increase his performance.

"it is a sad day for all of us who love sport and our athletic heroes." Travis Tygart, USADA's chief executive officer, said in a released statement yesterday."This is a heartbreaking example of how the win-at-all- costs culture of sport, if left unchecked, will overtake fair, safe and honest competition."

Two of Armstrong's former teammates, Floyd Landis, who was stripped of his Tour de France title in 2006, and Tyler Hamilton, who was suspended twice for the same act, accused him of using blood-boosting drug while winning his first Tour de France title in 1999.

"The ethical implications for an inquisition based on hearsay from witnesses to whom USADA has promised leniency are questionable at best," Armstrong's  attorneys Robert Luskin of Washington- based Patton Boggs LLP and Timothy Herman of Austin-based Howry, Breen & Herman LLP said in yesterday's letter to USADA.