World Anti-Doping Agency chief says Pat McQuaid and Co must take responsibility for Lance Armstrong affair

"Looking back, clearly the doping was widespread," Fahey said. "I look forward to seeing what they (the UCI) propose to do for the future to ensure what we've seen through this Armstrong debacle doesn't happen again.

"They clearly have to take the blinkers off, look at the past, examine the people who are there, ask themselves the questions: 'are those same people still in the sport and can they proceed forward with those people remaining?'.

"I don't think there's any credibility if they don't do that and I think they need to get confidence back into the sport so that its millions of supporters around the world will watch and support the sport going forward."

UCI president Pat McQuaid, who has held the position since 2006 and served eight years as the union's road commission chairman, rejected calls for his resignation over perceived failures by the world governing body over the Armstrong affair, instead insisting cycling has a positive future and "Lance Armstrong has no place in cycling".

McQuaid was forced to insist the UCI has "nothing to hide" over a donation of more than £62,000 made by Armstrong in 2002, denying it was connected to any cover-up of a positive test.

"UCI has nothing to hide in responding to the USADA report," McQuaid added.

"Don't try to make the connection between the suspicious test and the donation. There were no positive tests from him.

"There is no connection between the donation given to the UCI and a test being covered up because there was no test covered up.

"It's certainly not a resignation issue. It would be better if we hadn't done it, and if we were to do it in the future, we would do it in a different way."

Tour de France director Christian Prudhomme believes the race must not have a victor in the Armstrong years.

Prudhomme said: "The formal decision has to be taken by the UCI but for us, we must have a clean record. This period must be marked by the absence of winners.

"The UCI rules are clear. When a rider is disqualified, he must pay the prize money back."

The 41-year-old received a bonus of $5 million after a legal battle with SCA Promotions, who had declined to pay the sum in the belief the American had doped to win his seven Tour titles. Armstrong has now been asked to pay it back.

Jeff Tillotson, lawyer for SCA Promotions said: "It is inappropriate and improper for him to keep those bonus amounts and we will be demanding them back and pursuing appropriate legal action if he does not return them."

The International Olympic Committee will await Friday's UCI meeting and further information before a decision is made on the bronze medal Armstrong won in Sydney in 2000.

Armstrong, who battled back from cancer to return to professional cycling, has repeatedly denied wrongdoing and refused to co-operate with the USADA investigation.

He cuts an increasingly isolated figure as Oakley became the latest sponsor to withdraw their backing.

Armstrong today removed '7-time Tour de France champion' from his Twitter profile in his first response to being stripped of his seven titles for doping offences.

His profile today said: "Raising my five kids. Fighting Cancer. Swim, bike, run and golf whenever I can."

Both Armstrong and WADA could yet take the case to the Court of Arbitration for Sport.

Spanish champion cyclist Miguel Indurain said on Tuesday that he believed Lance Armstrong was innocent of the doping scandal that has seen the US rider stripped of seven Tour de France titles.

"Even now I believe in his innocence. He has always respected all the regulations ... He has won all the cases he's had," said Indurain, who won the Tour de France five times consecutively in 1991-1995.

The International Cycling Union (UCI) on Monday gave its backing to a report by the US Anti-Doping Agency that placed Armstrong at the heart of the biggest doping programme in sport.

It annulled his record back to Aug 1, 1998, making Indurain once again the joint record-holder in the world's top cycling race, alongside the Belgian Eddy Merckx and Frenchmen Bernard Hinault and Jacques Anquetil.

Indurain expressed doubts about the disciplinary procedures against Armstrong, who was sanctioned on the basis of testimonies by former team-mates cited in the US agency's report, not on the results of doping tests.

"I am a bit surprised. It is a bit strange that this has only been based on testimonies," Indurain said on Radio Marca.

"The rules said one thing and now it seems they have changed."

Indurain added that Armstrong "has always been a fighter. What surprises me is that he doesn't keep fighting ... I think he will come back and appeal and try to show that he played fair for all those years".

Meanwhile, another former team-mate of Armstrong has admitted using banned performance-enhancing substances.

Norwegian rider Steffen Kjaergaard said Tuesday that he used EPO and cortisone.

"I have long thought that it was best for cycling as a sport that I took this (secret) to the grave. But the last weeks have made me change course for my own sake and tell the truth," Kjaergaard said.

The 39-year-old Kjaergaard rode with Armstrong in the US Postal Service team when the American won the Tour de France in 2000 and 2001.

He said he wasn't aware of any of his team-mates using banned substances, "but I assume there were others."

"I have not directly witnessed anyone else dealing with this. That's why I do not want to expose anyone else," Kjaergaard said.

Kjaergaard won several Norwegian championships but no major races on the international level.

He is now sports director for the Norwegian Cycling Federation, a position that could be at risk because of his doping confession.

"This is a sad day for Norwegian cycling but we wanted to have this out in the light," said Harald Tiedemann Hansen, the president of Norway's anti-doping doping agency.

By Telegraph Sport

Source: www.telegraph.co.uk