Armstrong Staying Out of the Saddle

Lance Armstrong announced he would not be making a comeback next year after all, while his agent accused Dick Pound, head of the World Anti-Doping Agency, of making "false and misleading statements".

The Texan had considered returning to the saddle in the wake of allegations he had used EPO in winning the first of his record seven Tours de France in 1999. However, the 33-year-old has since decided to stay retired as Pound and International Cycling Union president Hein Verbruggen were drawn into a row over the allegations against Armstrong in French newspaper L'Equipe.

"Sitting here today, dealing with all this stuff again, knowing if I were to go back, there's no way I could get a fair shake - on the roadside, in doping control, or the labs," said Armstrong. "I think it's better that way. I'm happy with the way my career went and ended and I'm not coming back."

The announcement was made during a press call, also involving Armstrong's agent Bill Stapleton and his attorney Mark Levinstein, in response to Pound's claims that it was Verbruggen who had leaked medical documents identifying the American as the source of positive tests from the 1999 Tour.

L'Equipe claims to have evidence that Armstrong was the source of six positive EPO results uncovered when urine samples from the 1999 Tour were used as part of a research programme designed to improve testing for the banned blood booster. There has been speculation about which body leaked the information needed to connect the positive results with the source of the samples - the UCI, the French doping authorities or Wada.

Verbruggen has promised an investigation but that drew ridicule from Pound who yesterday claimed he had a letter from the UCI president in which he admitted giving the American's medical records to l'Equipe reporter Damien Ressiot.

He said: "It's quite clear. Mr Verbruggen told us that he showed all six of Armstrong's doping control forms to the journalist of L'Equipe and that he gave them a copy of at least one of the forms."

Armstrong accused Pound of simply getting his facts wrong, revealing that he approved the release of one of the forms to Ressiot, who wanted to check whether the UCI had granted him any medical exemptions during competition.

"There have been rumours around the press room for years that I was allowed because of my illness, because of my situation, to use EPO, to use anabolics," said Armstrong. "I heard that going back to 1999. Ressiot came along and said, 'Look, I want to help you guys out, everybody's talking about this and I just want to look at one of your forms'.

"So we said 'sure', but the point being, he looked at one form but they showed six in the newspaper."

Stapleton went further, accusing Pound of deliberately creating a smokescreen to obscure what he called a "breakdown" in doping procedure. He insisted the key was not the control forms but the results and codes from the samples. "What Mr Pound did today, giving false and misleading statements that try to misdirect and divert the attention away from himself by alleging that the UCI is the source of the leak is wrong," said Stapleton.

"The fact is what Damien Ressiot got are the testing forms that Lance filled out when he took his tests in 1999. Those forms have a name and a number, but the issue is that there were codes attached to anonymous samples that were leaked to the press.

"That is where the system broke down here, and is the fundamental question here in terms of the system and whether we can have confidence in it."