A report by Union Cycliste International's Independent Commission for Reform in Cycling has revealed how disgraced American cyclist and cycling's world governing body, the UCI, colluded from 1999 to 2009 to circumvent accusations that he doped.
The report has claimed that the UCI colluded with Armstrong not only to circumvent doping accusations but also to cement the former cyclist's status as the pre-eminent personality in sport.
The report states that there are numerous examples that prove Armstrong benefited from a preferential status afforded by the UCI leadership, adding that cycling's world governing body did not actively seek to corroborate whether allegations of doping against the American were well-founded but insisted that they fell back to a defensive position as if every attack against the cyclist was an attack against cycling and the UCI leadership, The Guardian reported.
The report also claimed that there was a tacit exchange of favours between the UCI leadership and Armstrong, and they presented a common front.
The tone was set at the episode in the 1999 Tour de France when Armstrong's doctors provided a backdated prescription for cortisone after he tested positive for the drug. The report insists that the UCI failed to apply its own rules, which constituted a serious breach of its obligations, to govern the sport correctly.
UCI's Independent Commission for Reform in Cycling's report concludes that the governing body bent its own rules, stating that direct contact was initiated between high-level UCI officials and the Armstrong entourage, during which the latter was advised to produce a medical certificate.
The report insisted that when a medical certificate was produced it should have been obvious to UCI that it was backdated and solely provided to justify a posteriori the traces of triamcinolone found in the rider's urine. Therefore, it states that disciplinary proceedings should have been opened.
The report further claims that Armstrong's doctor issued a certificate where not only was the date wrong but also what it attested, adding that the CIRC considers that it was a case of a false medical certificate and therefore the case should have been reported to the criminal authorities.
