A Texas insurance company is demanding the return of $7.5m (£4.7m) in bonuses from cyclist Lance Armstrong

By Simon Austin BBC Sport

SCA Promotions covered a performance bonus paid to the American after he won his sixth Tour de France in 2004.

Now that the International Cycling Union (UCI) has stripped Armstrong of his seven Tour titles, SCA will demand the money back from Armstrong.

SCA’s lawyer Jeffrey M. Tillotson told BBC Sport: “We will make a formal demand for return of funds.”

He added: “If this is not successful, we will initiate formal legal proceedings against Mr Armstrong in five business days (Monday 29 October).”

The insurance policy was taken out by Tailwind Sports, the then owner of the US Postal team, to cover performance bonuses that would be due to Armstrong if he won the Tour.

SCA refused to pay out the money because it argued Armstrong was not a clean rider.

Armstrong took legal action against the company and won, because the contract between the parties stipulated that the money would be payable if Armstrong was the “official winner” of the Tours from 2004 to 2006.

The company was forced to pay money relating to the bonus of $5m, plus $2.5m in interest and legal fees.

SCA will now attempt to recover that sum from Armstrong.

Tillotson added: “This is not a happy day for my client, but he feels Lance Armstrong has brought this upon himself.”

On Monday, the UCI ratified the decision of the US Anti-Doping Agency (Usada) to strip Armstrong of his seven Tour titles – meaning the Texan can no longer be considered the “official winner” of those titles.

Usada had uncovered evidence that Armstrong was involved in “the most sophisticated, professionalised and successful doping programme” in the history of sport.

Lance Armstrong stripped of all seven Tour de France wins by UCI

Lance Armstrong has been stripped of his seven Tour de France titles by cycling’s governing body.

The International Cycling Union (UCI) has accepted the findings of the United States Anti-Doping Agency’s (Usada) investigation into Armstrong.

UCI president Pat McQuaid said: “Lance Armstrong has no place in cycling. He deserves to be forgotten.”

McQuaid added Armstrong had been stripped of all results since 1 August, 1998 and banned for life for doping.

On what he called a “landmark day for cycling”, the Irishman, who became president of UCI in 2005, said he would not be resigning.

“This is a crisis, the biggest crisis cycling has ever faced,” he said. “I like to look at this crisis as an opportunity for our sport and everyone involved in it to realise it is in danger and to work together to go forward.

“Cycling has a future. This is not the first time cycling has reached a crossroads or that it has had to begin anew.

“When I took over [as president] in 2005 I made the fight against doping my priority. I acknowledged cycling had a culture of doping. Cycling has come a long way. I have no intention of resigning as president of the UCI,” McQuaid said.

“I’m sorry that we couldn’t catch every damn one of them red-handed and throw them out of the sport at the time.”

Tour de France director Christian Prudhomme called the UCI’s decision “totally logical” and repeated his wish that the results from the Armstrong years are not reallocated.

“We hope that there is no winner in these editions,” he said. “A formal decision must be taken by the UCI but for us, very clearly, there must be a blank record.”

The management committee of the UCI will meet on Friday to discuss the issue.

Armstrong, 41, received a life ban from Usada for what the organisation called “the most sophisticated, professionalised and successful doping programme that sport has ever seen”.

The American, who overcame cancer to return to professional cycling, won the Tour de France in seven successive years from 1999 to 2005.

He has always denied doping but chose not to fight the charges filed against him.

Usada released a 1,000-page report earlier this month which included sworn testimony from 26 people, including 15 riders with knowledge of the US Postal Service Team and the doping activities of its members.

Usada praised the “courage” shown by the riders in coming forward and breaking the sport’s “code of silence”.

Armstrong, who retired in 2005 but returned in 2009 before retiring for good two years later, has not commented on the details of Usada’s report. His lawyer Tim Herman, however, has described it as a “one-sided hatchet job”.

McQuaid said he was “sickened” by what he read in the Usada report, singling out the testimony of Armstrong’s former team-mate David Zabriskie.

“The story he told of how he was coerced and to some extent forced into doping is just mind-boggling,” he said. “It is very difficult to accept and understand that that went on.”

And referring to the fact that Armstrong was tested for doping more than 200 times and never caught, he said: “The cheats were better than the scientists and we can’t be blamed for that, we’re a sporting organisation.

“But cycling has changed a lot since then. What was available to the UCI then was much more limited compared to what is available now. If we had then what we have now, this sort of thing would not have gone on.”

Usada chief executive Travis Tygart welcomed UCI’s decision, but called for a new body to be set up to probe further into cycling’s murky past.

“It is essential that an independent and meaningful Truth and Reconciliation Commission be established so that the sport can fully unshackle itself from the past,” he said.

“There are many more details of doping that are hidden, many more doping doctors, and corrupt team directors and the omerta [code of silence] has not yet been fully broken.”

McQuaid was quizzed over the $100,000 (£62,300) donation made by Armstrong to the UCI in 2002, one year after the American cyclist had had a suspicious test for EPO at the 2001 Tour of Switzerland.

Asked by BBC sports editor David Bond how he could justify the payment, McQuaid said: “We used the money against doping, it was done openly and put to good use.”

For more on both stories go to

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/cycling/20029617

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/cycling/20008520