Hein Verbruggen to sue over Armstrong doping report

The former president of the UCI, Hein Verbruggen, is planning to sue the Cycling Independent Reform Commission for an “unfair, biased and incomplete” review into Lance Armstrong’s doping and the general culture of the UCI.

Telegraph Sport reports that that Verbruggen, who was at the helm of the UCI during all seven of Armstrong’s Tour de France wins, has created a 14 page rebuttal to the CIRC’s report, and has run it past his lawyers.

He writes: “The CIRC report just aims at destroying not only my person and reputation – which was of course the aim of Mr Cookson and Wada – but also 15 years of hard work by many people devoted to the cause of cycling and anti-doping.

“Failing concealed tests and corruption, other arguments had to be found to bring me down. The CIRC report is woefully short of objectivity and neutrality ... a complete sham.”

On his website Verbruggen details his struggles, saying: “I will publish all of the documents, letters and reports that were left out, or deliberately ignored by the CIRC. Why the CIRC decided to make these glaring omissions is not clear – but it was certainly not in the pursuit of objectivity and proper analysis.

“I have my own perspective, which I explain on this website. I accept that many people will disagree, and many will never change their minds. However I am making all of my documents freely available here so that you, the reader, can come to your own views based on all of the information that had been provided to the CIRC.”