Ex-Armstrong boss banned for life

Los Angeles – Lance Armstrong’s former US Postal team manager Johan Bruyneel (right) has been handed a life ban from cycling by the Court of Arbitration (Cas) for Sport.

Bruyneel, 54, was the team manager for all of Armstrong’s seven Tour de France victories from 1999 to 2005 – triumphs that were erased in the US superstar’s stunning fall from grace amid revelations of the biggest drugs scandal in cycling history.

“I want to stress that I acknowledge and fully accept that a lot of mistakes have been made in the past,” Belgium’s Bruyneel wrote in an open letter posted on Twitter after the Swiss-based Cas rendered its decision this week. “There are a lot of things I wish I could have done differently, and there are certain actions I now deeply regret.”

The decision was the culmination of a case that began in 2012, when the US Anti-Doping Agency charged Bruyneel as part of its investigation into Armstrong.

Three team doctors and trainer Michele Ferrari were accused of possessing, trafficking in and administering prohibited substances.

The American Arbitration Association slapped Bruyneel with a 10-year ban in 2014, when the World Anti-Doping Agency responded with a demand that he be banned from the sport for life – as Armstrong was in 2012.