PARIS: US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) president Travis Tygart accused the International Cycling Union (UCI) yesterday of failing in its promise to deal with the consequences of the Lance Armstrong scandal.
Speaking before a French Senate investigation committee on doping, Tygart, the man behind Armstrong’s fall, said the governing body had taken no action after the cyclist was banned for life for doping his way to seven Tour de France titles.
“It is unacceptable for the UCI to have accepted our reasoned decision, publicly announced that ‘decisive action was needed’ and simply have done nothing,” Tygart said in a 15-minute speech.
The USADA CEO reminded committee members that the UCI had said that only “a transparent and decisive examination of the past would answer the critics”.
“Well, the only decisive action came a few weeks later when UCI disbanded the established independent commission when it actually started to act independently by taking off the handcuffs and removing the blindfolds that the UCI had placed on it from the onset,” he said.
On January 28, the UCI disbanded the Independent Commission which was investigating the Armstrong affair in favour of a Truth and Reconciliation process -- which has yet to start.
“The UCI’s current strategy is to play a stall game, let the cycling season start, let another Tour de France occur, let another six months go by and people will forget,” said Tygart.
“Stall or delay yourself out of the problem.” reuters
