Armstrong's cycling manager banned for ten years for 'doping involvement'

London: The former cycling manager of disgraced cyclist Lance Armstrong has reportedly been handed a ten-year ban for his involvement in doping.

The American cycling legend was stripped of his seven Tour de France titles and given a lifetime ban for doping in 2012, following which he finally admitted using banned substances in a TV interview with Oprah Winfrey in January 2013.

According to the BBC, manager Johan Bruyneel, along with doctor Pedro Celaya and trainer Jose `Pepe` Marti, worked for Armstrong`s US Postal Service team (USPS), and while Bruyneel has been banned for ten years, Celaya and Marti both were given eight-year suspensions by the United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA).

A USADA statement said that the evidence establishes conclusively that Bruyneel was at the `apex of a conspiracy to commit widespread doping on the USPS and Discovery Channel teams spanning many years and many riders`, adding that Celaya and Marti may have `allowed themselves to be used as instruments of, that conspiracy`.

The report mentioned former professional cyclist, Bruyneel, who worked with Armstrong at the USADA and Discovery Channel teams, was team manager for all of Armstrong`s seven Tour de France wins from 1999 to 2005.

Although Bruyneel, who is banned until June 2022, admitted that doping was a `fact of life in the peloton for a considerable period of time`, however, he added that a very small minority of them have been used as scapegoats for an entire generation.