tour de france winners stripped of title

The List of Tour de France Winners Stripped of Their Title

By: Author Martin Williams

Posted on Last updated: March 19, 2023

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I grew up watching the Tour de France on TV, with Phil Ligget and Paul Sherwin as my guides. I rooted for a lot of cyclists who ended up winning the race, only to find out that not all of them deserved the victor’s yellow jersey in Paris.

Famous Cyclists Floyd Landis, Lance Armstrong, Alberto Contador, and Jan Ullrich have been stripped of their titles and banned from all Tour de France events. 

In the case of Contador and Landis, the winner title was given to the runner-ups in their races. However, for Armstrong, no official winner is listed anymore from 1999 to 2005. How did this come to happen?

I’ll explain all in this article, and give you a full list and breakdown of all the cyclists that have ‘won’ the Tour de France, only to later be stripped of their title for various reasons.

Table Of Cyclists Stripped Of Their Tour De France Titles:

1. floyd landis.

Floyd Landis, the recipient of various awards in the world of cycling and winner of the 2006 Tour de France, remains the first person in the history of 103 years of Tour de France to be stripped of his winning title.

He started as one of the toughest cyclists recognized in the world for his hard work with training, but eventually, it came to light that he had been taking performance-enhancing drugs. 

Landis himself didn’t admit to the accusation of doping. The news spread after his major win in the 2006 Tour de France which got him under scrutiny, but these claims were merely thought to be rumors.

However, with further evidence and research, Landis was suspended for two years from all sorts of cycling events. 

He was adamant on proving that the ruling was a “blow to athletes and cyclists everywhere” as he went on to criticize the Anti-Doping Agency (USADA).

He claimed that he was innocent and the doping samples found in his blood were of Jack Daniel’s and painkillers.

Things took a bit of a turn in 2010 when Landis decided to confess to his drug use through an email written to none other than Steve Johnson, the CEO of USA Cycling.

He admitted to using performance-enhancing drugs throughout his career, especially during the Tour de France of 2006.

The confession was not the only thing included as he went on to describe how he wasn’t the only cyclist who had been doping and named a few. 

The most prominent among these names was of Lance Armstrong, his greatest rival who had been under suspicion for a long time, and Landis provided the final evidence against him.

Lance on the spot decided to not comment on the matter but the investigation was initiated to look into him, along with many other cyclists who had been under the United States Postal Service.

Landis spends his life like a normal citizen now and is at peace with the fact that his cycling era is over and no one recognizes him anymore. 

2. Lance Armstrong 

To anyone who knows about the Tour de France, know the name of Lance Armstrong by heart.

His life story is one of fighting cancer with a brave face, participating in Tour de France, and winning for seven years straight. Then, respectfully retiring from the sport and eventually being stripped from all his titles, and having his name erased from the history of cycling. 

How this happened is connected directly to the Floyd Landis doping case, since he was the one who outed Armstrong to the public and cooperated with the FBI to further conduct the investigation.

It was then revealed that Armstrong had indeed been doping from the start of his career to his last win, but he deemed it better to publicly deny it for a long period.  

Armstrong became the highlight of the French cycling community after he returned to the sport by defeating third-stage testicular cancer and ended up winning his first Tour de France in 1999.

Then the following years till 2005, he kept on winning consecutively, attracting a ton of attention and inspiring millions of other people. 

It was around his fourth win that people started speculating about his drug usage and the authorities ran an investigation into the US Postal Service. The investigation turned out to be futile, meanwhile, Armstrong had begun his rivalry with Jan Ullrich. 

After Armstrong won the seventh Tour de France, he announced his retirement to be with his family.

It wasn’t long before the authorities conducted yet another investigation into the matter and got the samples retested, which proved that he was using drugs through all his performances. 

Therefore, it was decided that Armstrong must be stripped from all his titles and face a lifetime ban from participating in any cycling event, although at the time, Armstrong was adamant about refusing these allegations. 

Sometime later, in an interview with Oprah Winfrey, Armstrong finally admitted to using drugs and conducting blood transfusions during the Tour de France to secure his position.

The president of the Cycling Union stated that Lance Armstrong had no place in cycling and he deserves to be forgotten. ( Source )

3. Alberto Contador 

One of the most dominant cyclists of his era, Alberto Contador was a Spanish sportsman who had participated in Tour de France multiple times and bagged the first position in 2007, 2009, and 2010.

However, things took a turn when he was found guilty for the usage of Clenbuterol during his 2010 win of Tour de France, for which his title was stripped and he faced a ban of two years. 

This decision was made by Spain’s Cycling Federation after the Court of Arbitration, International Cycling Union, and World Anti-Doping Agency investigated the matter and found traces of clenbuterol in his blood samples.

Contador claimed that the traces were accidental and must have been indigested by him through food. This theory was put to test and it was observed that the clenbuterol in his body was indeed from eating meat and the traces were 40 times below any performance-enhancing drug. 

As the case went further, it was decided by the authorities to charge Contador guilty for accidentally consuming clenbuterol as the substance is considered prohibited.

The reactions to this case were mostly of disappointment as people critiqued the system for its unjust stripping of Contador’s title. 

4. Jan Ullrich 

As soon as Alberto Contador was stripped of his titles, it was Jan Ullrich who came next under the observation of the sport’s higher authorities.

Jan is widely recognized as one of the most challenging players and one with the most second-place finishes in Tour de France. He was accused of doping during the race of 1997 in which he secured the first position. 

Ulrich was a German cyclist who had a remarkable rivalry with Lance Armstrong, perhaps he was the chief rival, but Ullrich never surpassed Armstrong and always ended up with either second or third positions. 

The Court of Arbitration revealed that Ulrich was a part of Operation Puerto, where numerous sportsmen were under suspicion of using performance-enhancing drugs.

His title of the third position in 2005 was revoked and the cyclist faced a ban of two years from participating in any cycling-related event. 

There was some conjecture as to whether several years later that Ullrich might be stripped of his Olympic medals.

This came to light when Lance Armstrong was stripped of his third place in the Sydney Olympics. Armstrong complied with the order and returned his medal.

At the same Olympics, Ullrich had finished 1st in the men’s road race.

He perhaps pre-empted any demand to return medals by saying, ‘”Almost everyone at the time was taking performance-enhancing substances. I didn’t take anything that was not taken by the others. It would only have been cheating for me if I had gotten an advantage which was not the case. I just wanted to ensure I had an equal opportunity.”

 The Olympic committee took no further action, and Ullrich has retained his Olympic title.

Other Riders That Admitted To Doping

Although no one else has ever been officially stripped of a title, other than those four cyclists you can find above, there have been several other instances of winners of the Tour de France having allegedly admitted to doping. These include:

1. Fausto Coppi

Fausto Coppi was the winner of the Tour in both 1949 and 1952. In an interview in 1949, he said that, ‘Those who claim [not to take amphetamines], it’s not worth talking to them about cycling.’ (Source).

It should be noted that at this time taking drugs was not against the rules of the Tour de France. Therefore, Coppi could openly admit to taking amphetamines without any fear of reprisal.

2. Henri Pelissier

Pelissier was a French cyclist and winner of the Tour in 1923.

In an angry encounter with reporters, he threw his racing bag on the table in front of them, and said, ‘“You have no idea what the Tour de France is. But do you want to see how we keep going? Cocaine for the eyes. Chloroform for the gums. You want to see the pills too? Under the mud our flesh is white as a sheet. Our eyes are swimming and every night we dance like St. Vitus instead of sleeping.”

Once again, this was in an era before taking drugs was against the rules.

Under the World Anti-Doping Code, one of the violations is the ‘presence of a prohibited substance or its metabolites or markers in an athlete’s sample.’ ( Source ) 

As an athlete, it is highly unprofessional and keeps your career and reputation at stake once you opt for the use of drugs to win races, regardless of the competition.

The authorities are now stricter than ever when it comes to the Tour de France to ensure that history doesn’t repeat itself and riders aren’t victims of unjust rulings. 

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This Day In History : October 22

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Cyclist Lance Armstrong is stripped of his seven Tour de France titles

On October 22, 2012, Lance Armstrong is formally stripped of the seven Tour de France titles he won from 1999 to 2005 and banned for life from competitive cycling after being charged with systematically using illicit performance-enhancing drugs and blood transfusions as well as demanding that some of his Tour teammates dope in order to help him win races. It was a dramatic fall from grace for the onetime global cycling icon, who inspired millions of people after surviving cancer then going on to become one of the most dominant riders in the history of the grueling French race, which attracts the planet’s top cyclists.

Born in Texas in 1971, Armstrong became a professional cyclist in 1992 and by 1996 was the number-one ranked rider in the world. However, in October 1996 he was diagnosed with Stage 3 testicular cancer, which had spread to his lungs, brain and abdomen. After undergoing surgery and chemotherapy, Armstrong resumed training in early 1997 and in October of that year joined the U.S. Postal Service cycling team. Also in 1997, he established a cancer awareness foundation. The organization would famously raise millions of dollars through a sales campaign, launched in 2004, of yellow Livestrong wristbands.

In July 1999, to the amazement of the cycling world and less than three years after his cancer diagnosis, Armstrong won his first Tour de France. He was only the second American ever to triumph in the legendary, three-week race, established in 1903. (The first American to do so was Greg LeMond, who won in 1986, 1989 and 1990.) Armstrong went on to win the Tour again in 2000, 2001, 2002 and 2003. In 2004, he became the first person ever to claim six Tour titles, and on July 24, 2005, Armstrong won his seventh straight title and retired from pro cycling. He made a comeback to the sport in 2009, finishing third in that year’s Tour and 23rd in the 2010 Tour, before retiring for good in 2011 at age 39.

Throughout his career, Armstrong, like many other top cyclists of his era, was dogged by accusations of performance-boosting drug use, but he repeatedly and vigorously denied all allegations against him and claimed to have passed hundreds of drug tests. In June 2012, the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency (USADA), following a two-year investigation, charged the cycling superstar with engaging in doping violations from at least August 1998, and with participating in a conspiracy to cover up his misconduct. After losing a federal appeal to have the USADA charges against him dropped, Armstrong announced on August 23 that he would stop fighting them. However, calling the USADA probe an “unconstitutional witch hunt,” he continued to insist he hadn’t done anything wrong and said the reason for his decision to no longer challenge the allegations was the toll the investigation had taken on him, his family and his cancer foundation. The next day, USADA announced Armstrong had been banned for life from competitive cycling and disqualified of all competitive results from August 1, 1998, through the present.

On October 10, 2012, USADA released hundreds of pages of evidence—including sworn testimony from 11 of Armstrong’s former teammates, as well as emails, financial documents and lab test results—that the anti-doping agency said demonstrated Armstrong and the U.S. Postal Service team had been involved in the most sophisticated and successful doping program in the history of cycling. A week after the USADA report was made public, Armstrong stepped down as chairman of his cancer foundation and was dumped by a number of his sponsors, including Nike, Trek and Anheuser-Busch.On October 22, Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI), the cycling’s world governing body, announced that it accepted the findings of the USADA investigation and officially was erasing Armstrong’s name from the Tour de France record books and upholding his lifetime ban from the sport. In a press conference that day, the UCI president stated: “Lance Armstrong has no place in cycling, and he deserves to be forgotten in cycling.”

After years of denials, Armstrong finally admitted publicly, in a televised interview with Oprah Winfrey that aired on January 17, 2013, he had doped for much of his cycling career, beginning in the mid-1990s through his final Tour de France victory in 2005. He admitted to using a performance-enhancing drug regimen that included testosterone, human growth hormone, the blood booster EPO and cortisone.

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Lance Armstrong Is Stripped of His 7 Tour de France Titles

By Juliet Macur

• Oct. 22, 2012

The International Cycling Union announced Monday that it would not appeal the United States Anti-Doping Agency’s ruling to bar Lance Armstrong for life from Olympic sports for doping and for playing an instrumental role in the team-organized doping on his Tour de France-winning cycling squads.

That decision to waive the right to take Armstrong’s case to the Court of Arbitration for Sport, the highest court in sports, formally stripped Armstrong of the seven Tour titles he won from 1999 to 2005.

“Lance Armstrong has no place in cycling; he deserves to be forgotten in cycling,” Pat McQuaid, the president of the cycling union, known as U.C.I., said in a news conference in Switzerland. “Something like this must never happen again.”

McQuaid said he was “sickened” by the facts in the 202-page report the antidoping agency made public two weeks ago regarding the evidence it had in the Armstrong case, and called it mind-boggling how former teammates like the five-time national time-trial champion David Zabriskie were pushed to use performance-enhancing drugs.

McQuaid said that Armstrong’s teams had a “win at all costs” attitude fueled by “deceit, intimidation, coercion and evasion,” and that all of the evidence was there to prove that Armstrong doped. He added that he was sorry the cycling union had not caught Armstrong and his teammates “red handed” so he could have thrown them out of the sport.

Armstrong, who has vehemently denied ever doping, declined to comment Monday. But in the past, he said that he, his teammates and those riders who competed against him would always know he won those seven Tours. By early Tuesday, his biography on his Twitter page had been changed to no longer say he is the seven-time Tour de France winner.

The antidoping agency applauded the cycling union’s acceptance of the penalties the agency gave Armstrong in August, when Armstrong gave up fighting his case. Back then, the cycling union was battling to gain jurisdiction over the matter.

“Today, the U.C.I. made the right decision in the Lance Armstrong case,” Travis Tygart, the antidoping agency’s chief executive, said in a statement. “Despite its prior opposition to Usada’s investigation into doping on the U.S. Postal Service cycling team and within the sport, Usada is glad that the U.C.I. finally reversed course in this case and has made the credible decision available to it.”

Tygart said there was still more to do to clean up cycling because there were “many more details of doping that are hidden, many more doping doctors, and corrupt team directors, and the omerta has not yet been fully broken.” He called for immunity to be given to riders who come forward and confess their doping, so the sport can learn from its mistakes.

The World Anti-Doping Agency now has the opportunity to appeal Usada’s decision, and its officials said they were still in the process of reviewing the evidence.

The cycling union’s announcement delivered yet another devastating blow to Armstrong, who has unceremoniously fallen from grace within the past two weeks.

Last week he stepped down as the chairman of Livestrong, his cancer foundation, and lost nearly all of his sponsors, including Nike and the Trek bicycle company. Oakley sunglasses, one of the companies that had been with Armstrong the longest, announced Monday that it was dropping him, too.

Also, the International Olympic Committee is reviewing Armstrong’s case and will probably strip him of the bronze medal he won at the 2000 Sydney Olympics.

Christian Prudhomme, the Tour’s race director, said at a news conference Monday that he no longer considered Armstrong a Tour champion and that the Amaury Sport Organization, the company that organizes the Tour de France, would erase Armstrong’s name from its record books.

He added that the runners-up should not be elevated in the standings because of the prevalent doping that occurred during that period in the sport.

“Those dark years must be marked by the absence of a winner,” he said.

Prudhomme characterized Armstrong as “a true talent who strayed” and “played with fire,” and said he would like Armstrong to repay the millions of dollars in prize money he won at the Tour.

But the cycling union will make the final decision on that.

McQuaid said the management committee of the cycling union would meet on Friday to discuss the ramifications of Armstrong’s downfall, including if and how Armstrong would repay prize money and how the cycling union would handle the standings at the Tours he won. He said the committee also would discuss the possible repayment of prize money by Armstrong’s former teammates who provided testimony in the antidoping agency’s case and confessed their own doping.

“A lot of these guys made a lot of money out of their cheating,” McQuaid said. “A lot have admitted they cheated and apologized to their family and friends, but they have not apologized to the U.C.I. or the sport.”

McQuaid also disputed accusations that the cycling union covered up positive drug tests for Armstrong or took bribes from him, calling those claims absolutely untrue.

The decision to strip Armstrong of his Tour victories has also created legal problems for him. One is that SCA Promotions, an insurance company based in Dallas, is trying to recoup $9.5 million in performance bonuses it covered when Armstrong won Tour after Tour.

The company withheld a $5 million bonus for Armstrong’s winning the 2004 Tour after a French book claimed he had doped and cheated to win. Armstrong sued the company to force it to pay him that bonus. The two parties reached a settlement, with the insurance company paying Armstrong $7.5 million — and now SCA Promotions wants that money returned, along with the other $4.5 million in bonuses, for a total of $12 million.

“Once he loses those titles, in our minds, he’s not entitled to those payments,” Jeffrey M. Tillotson, a lawyer for the company, said. “We’re sending a demand letter to him, which I’m sure he’ll throw away. But fair is fair. We want our money back.”

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Has Pro Cycling Cleaned Up Its Act?

Tour de france.

Aside from a little controversy surrounding the inclusion of dangerous cobblestone sections in this year’s Tour de France route and the heatwave that made this year's competition even more grueling than usual, the world’s most prestigious cycling race made relatively few headlines that weren't directly related to what was happening on France's scenic country roads.

Considering its history marred in scandals that culminated in Lance Armstrong’s seven-year reign over La Grande Boucle (“The Big Loop”), the Tour’s organizing body can likely draw positives from a lack of headlines, as no headlines also means no doping revelations that have plagued the entire sport for so long.

As the following chart shows, the Tour de France and professional cycling as a whole appear to have cleaned up their act, with the share of participants found guilty of anti-doping violations dropping continuously over the past two decades. Given the sport’s history, you don’t have to be a cynic to at least put an asterisk to these numbers, however. Too often have allegedly clean champions later been found guilty of doping as anti-doping agencies caught up with the latest performance enhancing drug of choice.

Looking at the data compiled by French website cyclisme-dopage.com is sobering to say the least. It reveals that the Tour de France winner in 42 of the last 55 years has been found guilty of doping at some point in his career, many of which having retroactively been stripped of their Tour wins.

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Lance Armstrong stripped of his seven Tour de France titles by UCI

Lance Armstrong "has no place in cycling" and has been stripped of his seven Tour de France titles after the sport's world governing body, the UCI accepted the findings of the United States Anti-Doping Agency's investigation.

Armstrong refused to co-operate with Usada, who earlier this month published a 1,000-page report that concluded the Texan and his United States Postal Service team ran "the most sophisticated, professionalised and successful doping programme that sport has ever seen".

In accordance with the World Anti-Doping Code, the UCI had 21 days to respond, until 31 October, and the president Pat McQuaid announced on Monday that cycling's world governing body would accept Usada's findings and ratified the sanctions imposed on Armstrong. The former rider has been stripped of all results since 1 August, 1998 and banned for life.

At a media conference in Geneva, McQuaid said: "The UCI will not appeal to the court of arbitration for sport and it will recognise the sanctions that Usada has imposed.

"The UCI will ban Lance Armstrong from cycling and the UCI will strip him of his seven Tour de France titles. Lance Armstrong has no place in cycling."

McQuaid, whose organisation has long battled a major doping problem throughout the sport, added: "This is not the first time cycling has reached a crossroads and has had to start anew." He said he would not be resigning.

Eleven former team-mates of Armstrong testified against him to Usada, receiving six-month bans. These suspensions were also ratified by the UCI, which thanked the riders for giving evidence.

McQuaid said: "The UCI will also recognise the sanctions imposed on the riders who testified against Lance Armstrong; UCI indeed thanks them for telling their stories."

The UCI, particularly the leadership of McQuaid and the honorary president Hein Verbruggen, who was president at the time of Armstrong's record run of Tour success, have met criticism over the Usada investigation.

Allegations have been made against the UCI that McQuaid dismissed. "UCI has nothing to hide in responding to the Usada report. The UCI has called a special meeting of the management committee next Friday to discuss this report and the measures which the UCI wishes to put in place in order that we are never faced with such a situation in the future."

McQuaid was steadfast in his belief that cycling has a positive future. "This is a landmark day for cycling. Cycling has endured a lot of pain as it has absorbed the impact of the Usada report.

"UCI promised to prioritise our analysis of the report and to provide an early response and we've done that. My message to cycling, to our riders, to our sponsors and to our fans today is: cycling has a future.

"This is not the first time that cycling has reached a crossroads or that it has had to begin anew and to engage in the painful process of confronting its past.

"Stakeholders and fans can be assured that it will find a new path forward. We're here to answer your questions and to say to the cycling community: UCI is listening and is on your side.

"We've come too far in the fight against doping to return to our past. Cycling has a future and something like this must never happen again."

• Lance Armstrong
• Drugs in sport
• Usada (United States Anti-Doping Agency)

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Cyclist landis stripped of 2006 tour de france title.

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American Floyd Landis has been stripped of his 2006 Tour de France championship title for using banned drugs during the race. Runner-up Oscar Pereiro of Spain was pronounced the new winner.

The case represents the first time in the more than 100-year history of the Tour that a victory has been revoked by doping charges.

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Lance Armstrong stripped of Tour de France medals

October 22, 2012 / 10:22 AM EDT / AP

Last Updated 10:22 a.m. ET

GENEVA American cyclist Lance Armstrong was stripped of his seven Tour de France titles and banned for life by cycling's governing body Monday following a report from the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency that accused him of leading a massive doping program on his teams.

Cycling's governing body agreed Monday to stripping Armstrong of his Tour de France titles, following a report from the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency that accused him of leading a massive doping program on his teams.

UCI President Pat McQuaid announced that the federation accepted the USADA's report on Armstrong and would not appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport.

The decision cleared the way for Tour de France organizers to officially remove Armstrong's name from the record books, erasing his consecutive victories from 1999-2005.

In Paris, Tour director Christian Prudhomme said at a news conference he no longer considers Armstrong the seven-time champion of the race. Prudhomme called UCI's decision "totally logical" and said "Lance Armstrong is no longer the winner of the Tour de France from 1999-2005."

Prudhomme has said the race would go along with whatever cycling's governing body decided, and will have no official winners for those years.

USADA said Armstrong should be banned and stripped of his Tour titles for "the most sophisticated, professionalized and successful doping program that sport has ever seen" within his U.S. Postal Service and Discovery Channel teams.

The USADA report said Armstrong and his teams used steroids, the blood booster EPO and blood transfusions. The report included statements from 11 former teammates who testified against Armstrong.

Armstrong denies doping, saying he passed hundreds of drug tests. But he chose not to fight USADA in one of the agency's arbitration hearings, arguing the process was biased against him. Former Armstrong team director Johan Bruyneel is also facing doping charges, but he is challenging the USADA case in arbitration.

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On Sunday, Armstrong greeted about 4,300 cyclists at his Livestrong charity's fundraiser bike ride in Texas, telling the crowd he's faced a "very difficult" few weeks.

"I've been better, but I've also been worse," Armstrong, a cancer survivor, told the crowd.

While drug use allegations have followed the 41-year-old Armstrong throughout much of his career, the USADA report has badly damaged his reputation. Longtime sponsors Nike, Trek Bicycles and Anheuser-Busch have dropped him, as have other companies, and Armstrong also stepped down last week as chairman of Livestrong, the cancer awareness charity he founded 15 years ago after surviving testicular cancer which spread to his lungs and brain.

Armstrong's astonishing return from life-threatening illness to the summit of cycling offered an inspirational story that transcended the sport. However, his downfall has ended "one of the most sordid chapters in sports history," USADA said in its 200-page report published two weeks ago.

Armstrong has consistently argued that the USADA system was rigged against him, calling the agency's effort a "witch hunt."

If Armstrong's Tour victories are not reassigned there would be a hole in the record books, marking a shift from how organizers treated similar cases in the past.

When Alberto Contador was stripped of his 2010 Tour victory for a doping violation, organizers awarded the title to Andy Schleck. In 2006, Oscar Pereiro was awarded the victory after the doping disqualification of American rider Floyd Landis.

USADA also thinks the Tour titles should not be given to other riders who finished on the podium, such was the level of doping during Armstrong's era.

The agency said 20 of the 21 riders on the podium in the Tour from 1999 through 2005 have been "directly tied to likely doping through admissions, sanctions, public investigations" or other means. It added that of the 45 riders on the podium between 1996 and 2010, 36 were by cyclists "similarly tainted by doping."

The world's most famous cyclist could still face further sports sanctions and legal challenges. Armstrong could lose his 2000 Olympic time-trial bronze medal and may be targeted with civil lawsuits from ex-sponsors or even the U.S. government.

In total, 26 people — including 15 riders — testified that Armstrong and his teams used and trafficked banned substances and routinely used blood transfusions. Among the witnesses were loyal sidekick George Hincapie and convicted dopers Tyler Hamilton and Floyd Landis.

USADA's case also implicated Italian sports doctor Michele Ferrari, depicted as the architect of doping programs, and longtime coach and team manager Bruyneel.

Ferrari — who has been targeted in an Italian prosecutor's probe — and another medical official, Dr. Luis Garcia del Moral, received lifetime bans.

Bruyneel, team doctor Pedro Celaya and trainer Jose "Pepe" Marti opted to take their cases to arbitration with USADA. The agency could call Armstrong as a witness at those hearings.

Bruyneel, a Belgian former Tour de France rider, lost his job last week as manager of the RadioShack-Nissan Trek team which Armstrong helped found to ride for in the 2010 season.

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Alberto Contador found guilty of doping, stripped of 2010 Tour title

• Author: SI Staff

The Court of Arbitration for Sport suspended the three-time Tour champion after rejecting his claim that his positive test for clenbuterol was caused by eating contaminated meat on a 2010 Tour rest day.

The three-man CAS panel upheld appeals by the International Cycling Union and World Anti-Doping Agency, which challenged a Spanish cycling tribunal's decision last year to exonerate Contador.

CAS backdated Contador's ban, and he is eligible to return to competition on Aug. 6. The ban means Contador will miss the Giro d'Italia, the Tour de France and the London Olympics, but he would be eligible to ride in the Spanish Vuelta, which begins Aug. 18.

Contador had no immediate comment and is expected to hold a news conference Tuesday. He can appeal the verdict to Switzerland's supreme court.

WADA President John Fahey described the court's judgment as "an appropriate decision ... which represents the effective nature of the World Anti-Doping Code."

The ruling came just three days after U.S. federal prosecutors dropped a doping investigation involving seven-time Tour winner Lance Armstrong. The American was a teammate of Contador during the Spaniard's 2009 Tour victory. The revised list of champions shows Armstrong and Contador combined to win nine of the 11 Tours from 1999-2009.

Contador blamed steak bought from a Basque producer for his high reading of clenbuterol, which is sometimes used by farmers to fatten their livestock. To avoid a doping ban, he needed to prove how the anabolic drug entered his body and convince the panel he was not to blame.

In its ruling, CAS said the presence of clenbuterol was more likely caused by a contaminated food supplement than by eating contaminated meat.

"Unlike certain other countries, notably outside Europe, Spain is not known to have a contamination problem with clenbuterol in meat," CAS said in its ruling. "Furthermore, no other cases of athletes having tested positive to clenbuterol allegedly in connection with the consumption of Spanish meat are known."

Contador is one of only five cyclists to win the three Grand Tours - the Tour, the Giro and the Vuelta. He also won the Tour de France in 2007 and 2009.

He becomes only the second Tour de France champion to be disqualified and stripped of victory for doping. The first was American Floyd Landis, who lost his 2006 title after testing positive for testosterone.

Andy Schleck of Luxembourg, who finished second at the 2010 Tour, stands to be elevated to the top spot.

"There is no reason to be happy now," Schleck said in a statement issued by his team, RadioShack Nissan Trek. "First of all I feel sad for Alberto. I always believed in his innocence. I battled with Contador in that race and I lost."

Contador kept racing after his positive test on a 2010 Tour rest day. He will be stripped of all results from his races since Jan. 25, 2011 - the day the Spanish federation proposed a one-year ban. That period includes his Giro d'Italia victory last season.

"This is a sad day for our sport," UCI president Pat McQuaid said. "Some may think of it as a victory, but that is not at all the case. There are no winners when it comes to the issue of doping: every case, irrespective of its characteristics, is always a case too many."

CAS said it would rule later on a request by UCI to fine Contador $3.25 million.

CAS secretary general Matthieu Reeb said the doping offense was "not contested," only the explanation for how the clenbuterol got into Contador's system.

"It is just the application of the rules, the fact that there was a positive test," Reeb told reporters. "In the end, it is not so spectacular. There is a clear decision based on a positive test. There was no reason to exonerate the athlete, so the sanction is two years."

If Contador appeals to the Swiss Federal Tribunal, the court can decide the legal process was abused but would not examine the merits of the evidence. A federal appeal process typically takes several months, though the court rarely overrules CAS.

Contador tested positive on the July 21 rest day. The positive results were not confirmed publicly until September 2010, when the UCI announced it had provisionally suspended him pending an investigation by Spain's cycling body.

Contador was originally cleared last February by the Spanish cycling federation's tribunal, which rejected a recommendation to impose a one-year ban. Days earlier, then Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero said on Twitter there was no reason to punish the rider, who is idolized in his country.

"It is regrettable there was some political interference at the first instance process from Spain which inevitably led to the appeal," Fahey said.

After the UCI and WADA appealed the Spanish verdict, a twice-postponed hearing was heard by CAS in November.

The four-day session almost ended in chaos as lawyers for the UCI and WADA considered walking out when the panel chairman, Israeli lawyer Efraim Barak, prevented one of their expert witnesses from being questioned about the science of blood doping and transfusions.

Contador attended the closed-door hearing, which ended with him making a personal plea of innocence to the arbitrators. The panel also included German law professor Ulrich Haas, nominated by Contador's side, and Geneva-based lawyer Quentin Byrne-Sutton, selected by the UCI and WADA.

The complex 18-month legal case also raised questions about the status of clenbuterol in anti-doping rules and the honesty of Spanish farmers. The drug is banned in Europe.

Spain's national association of cattle farmers, known as ASOPROVAC, which opposed Contador's defense, said it was vindicated after it had "come under scrutiny following false accusations."

Contador is under contract to ride in 2012 for the Danish team Saxo Bank.

Team spokesman Anders Damgaard said the team was studying the ruling before making any comment.

Team owner Bjarne Riis admitted in 2007 that he had used the performance-enhancing drug EPO during his career, including when he won the 1996 Tour de France.

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Alberto Contador stripped of Tour title

• ESPN.com news services

MADRID -- Alberto Contador was stripped of his 2010 Tour de France title Monday and banned for two years after sport's highest court found the Spanish cyclist guilty of doping.

The Court of Arbitration for Sport suspended the three-time Tour champion after rejecting his claim that his positive test for clenbuterol was caused by eating contaminated meat on a 2010 Tour rest day.

The three-man CAS panel upheld appeals by the International Cycling Union and World Anti-Doping Agency, which challenged a Spanish cycling tribunal's decision last year to exonerate Contador.

"The presence of clenbuterol was more likely caused by the ingestion of a contaminated food supplement," CAS said in its ruling in Lausanne, Switzerland.

CAS backdated Contador's ban and he is eligible to return to competition on Aug. 6. The ban means Contador will miss the Giro d'Italia, the Tour de France and the London Olympics, but he would be eligible to ride in the Spanish Vuelta, which begins Aug. 18.

Contador had no immediate comment and is expected to hold a news conference Tuesday. He can appeal the verdict to Switzerland's supreme court.

WADA president John Fahey described the court's judgment as "an appropriate decision ... which represents the effective nature of the World Anti-Doping Code."

"It is regrettable there was some political interference at the first instance process from Spain which inevitably led to the appeal," Fahey said Monday.

The ruling on Contador came just three days after U.S. federal prosecutors dropped a doping investigation involving seven-time Tour winner Lance Armstrong. The American was a teammate of Contador during the Spaniard's 2009 Tour victory. The revised list of champions shows Armstrong and Contador combined to win nine of the 11 Tours from 1999 to 2009.

Contador is one of only five cyclists to win the three Grand Tours -- the Tour, the Giro and the Vuelta. He also won the Tour de France in 2007 and 2009.

Contador becomes only the second Tour de France champion to be disqualified and stripped of victory for doping. The first was Floyd Landis, the American who lost his 2006 title after testing positive for testosterone.

Andy Schleck of Luxembourg, who finished second at the 2010 Tour, stands to be elevated to victory.

"There is no reason to be happy now," Schleck said in a statement issued by his team, RadioShack Nissan Trek. "First of all I feel sad for Alberto. I always believed in his innocence. I battled with Contador in that race and I lost."

Contador blamed steak bought from a Basque producer for his high reading of clenbuterol, which is sometimes used by farmers to fatten their livestock.

To avoid a doping ban, he needed to prove how the anabolic drug entered his body and convince the panel he was not to blame.

CAS said both the meat contamination theory and a blood transfusion scenario for the positive test were "possible" but "equally unlikely."

"The Panel found that there were no established facts that would elevate the possibility of meat contamination to an event that could have occurred on a balance of probabilities," CAS said. "Unlike certain other countries, notably outside Europe, Spain is not known to have a contamination problem with clenbuterol in meat. Furthermore, no other cases of athletes having tested positive to clenbuterol allegedly in connection with the consumption of Spanish meat are known."

CAS secretary general Matthieu Reeb said the doping offense was "not contested," only the explanation for how the clenbuterol got into Contador's system.

"It is just the application of the rules, the fact that there was a positive test," Reeb told reporters. "In the end, it is not so spectacular. There is a clear decision based on a positive test. There was no reason to exonerate the athlete, so the sanction is two years."

Contador kept racing after his positive test on a 2010 Tour rest day. He will be stripped of all results from races in which he participated since Jan. 25, 2011 -- the day the Spanish federation proposed a one-year ban. That period includes his Giro d'Italia victory last season.

"This is a sad day for our sport," UCI president Pat McQuaid said. "Some may think of it as a victory, but that is not at all the case. There are no winners when it comes to the issue of doping: Every case, irrespective of its characteristics, is always a case too many."

CAS said it would rule later on a request by UCI to fine Contador $3.25 million.

Tour de France director Christian Prudhomme said he was relieved a resolution was reached, though the case had revealed many of the sport's problems in dealing with doping cases.

"[The decision] is obviously very late, too late," Prudhomme said. "It is absolutely necessary that, even though sports justice like any type of justice needs serenity and even though the case was extremely complex, the outcome of that type of case come sooner."

The CAS ruling revealed that WADA tried to introduce a protected witness at Contador's hearing. The panel, however, rejected the anonymous testimony about "events that allegedly happened in 2005 and 2006."

If Contador appeals to the Swiss Federal Tribunal, the court can decide the legal process was abused but would not examine the merits of the evidence. A federal appeal process typically takes several months, though the court rarely overrules CAS.

Contador tested positive on the July 21 rest day. The positive results were not confirmed publicly until September 2010, when the UCI announced it had provisionally suspended him pending an investigation by Spain's cycling body.

Contador was originally cleared last February by the Spanish cycling federation's tribunal, which rejected a recommendation to impose a one-year ban.

The Spanish federation was surprised CAS decided to overrule its decision.

"We feel a lot of sympathy for the athlete," federation president Juan Carlos Castano said. "It's a sad day for Spanish sport and cycling."

Days before the February ruling, then-Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero said on Twitter that there was no reason to punish the rider, who is idolized in his country.

"The fault is with the institutions that haven't served their purpose and who haven't been able to review a case like this," Contador said of his case, nearly one year ago. "It's been six months of sleepless nights, pulling your hair out -- there are times when I cried."

After the UCI and WADA appealed the Spanish verdict, a twice-postponed hearing was heard by CAS in November.

The four-day session almost ended in chaos as lawyers for the UCI and WADA considered walking out when the panel chairman, Israeli lawyer Efraim Barak, prevented one of their expert witnesses from being questioned about the science of blood doping and transfusions.

Contador attended the closed-door hearing, which ended with him making a personal plea of innocence to the arbitrators. The panel also included German law professor Ulrich Haas, nominated by Contador's side, and Geneva-based lawyer Quentin Byrne-Sutton, selected by the UCI and WADA.

The complex 18-month legal case has also raised questions about the status of clenbuterol in anti-doping rules and the honesty of Spanish farmers. The drug is banned in Europe.

Contador is under contract to ride in 2012 for the Danish team Saxo Bank.

Team spokesman Anders Damgaard said the team was studying the ruling before making any comment.

Team owner Bjarne Riis admitted in 2007 that he had used the performance-enhancing drug EPO during his career, including when he won the 1996 Tour de France.

Reaction from two former Tour de France winners sided with Contador.

Five-time Tour champion Eddy Merckx said, "It's like someone wants to kill cycling."

"I'm very surprised, very surprised," Merckx said at the Tour of Qatar. "It's bad for the sponsors. It's bad for the Tour [de France]. It's bad for cycling."

Oscar Perreiro, who was elevated to 2006 champion after Landis was stripped, called the verdict "disgraceful" and claimed Contador "is innocent."

"He's innocent, I know him," Pereiro said on Twitter. "Alberto has put his life on the line in descents and sprints over the past two years, so what if something would have happened to him? [I'm] at a loss for words."

Spain's national association of cattle farmers felt vindicated.

"This shows that our system of traceability and food safety is one of the best around and is homogeneous with all other EU countries," the organization, which goes by the acronym ASOPROVAC, said in a statement. "This decision that puts an end to [our] work ... in defending our food safety system, which has come under scrutiny following false accusations."

Miguel Indurain, who dominated the Tour from 1991-95, said he was certain Contador would be cleared.

"The longer he waited, the more time passed, and at the end the penalty was the maximum that he could receive," Indurain was quoted as telling Marca TV by the Spanish news agency Europa Press. "Now he has to keep working and stay in shape. He has known how to fight through the tough moments and he will continue doing so."

Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.

List of Tour de France winners

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Compiled by Julien Pretot; Editing by Ed Osmond

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The U.S. Justice Department has reached a $138.7 million civil settlement with hundreds of victims of former USA Gymnastics doctor Larry Nassar, who is serving time in prison for sexually abusing athletes under his care, the agency said on Tuesday.