Lance Armstrong's former doctor has doping ban lifted

A former doctor for Lance Armstrong's US Postal Service team has had his lifetime ban lifted by the US Anti-Doping Agency (Usada) as a result of his testimony against team manager, Johan Bruyneel. Luis Garcia del Moral is no longer under sanction with immediate effect.

In April 2014, it was revealed that Armstrong had stated under oath that Dr Luis Garcia del Moral had provided him with doping products in the period up until 2005.

Others Armstrong named as being involved included Bruyneel, Dr Pedro Celaya Lemaza, and trainer Jose "Pepe" Marti, all of whom had bans extended this week following a successful appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) by the World Anti-Doping Agency (Wada).

“We were all children of our era,” wrote Bruyneel after his 10-year ban was extended to life.

Dr del Moral had entered a cooperation agreement with Wada, the UCI, and Usada and provided testimony at the hearing regarding the three other men.

The CAS panel of arbitrators found his testimony to be “credible, truthful, and useful” in its decision and described it (a touch inaccurately) as “the straw that literally broke the back of Mr Bruyneel’s evidence.”

Del Moral’s lifetime ban was to be reduced to five years in the event he provided truthful testimony and full cooperation – although the reduction could not take effect until a final decision from the arbitrators. His sanction is therefore now considered to have expired on July 10, 2017.

In April, El Pais reported that Del Moral had admitted administering riders with EPO, growth hormone, and corticoids during a stint as medical director of Spain’s national track cycling squad between 1993 and 1998.