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Armstrong's career wiped from books

Champagne toasts on the Champs-Elysees and the two-fingered "V" for victory signs he flashed while pedalling to the finish line. Faded images like those are all that remain of the unprecedented cycling career of Lance Armstrong. The U.S.

Champagne toasts on the Champs-Elysees and the two-fingered "V" for victory signs he flashed while pedalling to the finish line.

Faded images like those are all that remain of the unprecedented cycling career of Lance Armstrong.

The U.S. Anti-Doping Agency erased the rest of it on Friday.

It wiped out 14 years of Armstrong's career - including his record seven Tour de France titles - and barred him for life from the sport after concluding he used banned substances.

USADA said it expected cycling's governing body to take similar action, but the International Cycling Union was measured in its response, saying it first wanted a full explanation of why Armstrong should relinquish Tour titles he won from 1999 through 2005. The U.S. agency contends the cycling body is bound by the World Anti-Doping Code to strip Armstrong of one of the most incredible achievements in sports.

Armstrong, who retired a year ago and turns 41 next month, said Thursday he would no longer challenge USADA and declined to exercise his last option by entering arbitration.

USADA chief Travis Tygart described the investigation as a battle against a "win-at-all-cost culture."

Armstrong on Friday sent a tweet that he's still planning to ride in a mountain bike race in Aspen, Colorado, today and follow it up with running a marathon on Sunday but he did not comment directly on the sanctions.

The UCI and USADA have engaged in a turf war over who should prosecute allegations against Armstrong. The UCI event backed Armstrong's failed legal challenge to USADA's authority, and it cited the same World Anti-Doping Code in saying that it wanted to hear more from the U.S. agency.

"As USADA has claimed jurisdiction in the case, the UCI expects that it will issue a reasoned decision" explaining the action taken, the Switzerland-based organization said in a statement. It said legal procedures obliged USADA to fulfil this demand in cases "where no hearing occurs."

If Tour de France officials follow USADA's lead and announce that Armstrong has been stripped of his titles, Jan Ullrich could be promoted to champion in three of those years. Ullrich was stripped of his third-place finish in the 2005 Tour and retired from racing two years later after being implicated in another doping scandal.

The retired German racer expressed no desire to rewrite the record book of cycling's greatest event, even though he would be the biggest beneficiary.

"I know how the order was on the finishing line," Ullrich said. "I've finished with my professional career and have always said that I was proud of my second-place finishes."

Besides the disqualifications, Armstrong will forfeit any medals, winnings, points and prizes, USADA said, but it is the lost titles that now dominate his legacy.