Lance Armstrong

Lance Armstrong ... should have been pursued earlier. Photo: AP

RAY GODKIN, once Australia's top-ranking cycling official, says that in hindsight the International Cycling Union could have pursued suspicions over Lance Armstrong earlier.

Godkin, a former UCI vice-president who still holds that title in an honorary capacity, said he believed the world body did the best job possible in handling the doping issue during what has now been dubbed a ''dark era'' of doping. His comments follow the US Anti-Doping Agency investigation into Armstrong, who has now been banned for life and stripped of his seven Tour de France titles as a result of its detailed findings. The UCI ratified these actions on Monday.

Godkin said cycling's struggle against doping had been better waged in recent years, especially with the introduction of the biological blood passport system in 2008, his last year in office. He does concede that he had his own suspicions about Armstrong in the years of his domination of the Tour, from 1999 to 2005. He also concedes that the UCI should have made greater effort to pursue the general suspicions of the time - and USADA, US Cycling and the World Anti-Doping Authority, too.

Godkin backed UCI president Pat McQuaid's explanation that the UCI did not have ''the tools then that we have now'' to catch doping cheats. But when asked yesterday if he felt there had been a point when Armstrong's doping program on the US Postal Service team could have been stopped earlier, Godkin: ''If there was a more vigorous chase …


''We are all clever in hindsight. When you sit down today and think of more things we could have done, and we would have nabbed him. But … we didn't. We are talking about it.''

Godkin does not believe McQuaid or Dutch honorary president Hein Verbruggen should fall on their swords because sport's biggest doping scandal unfolded on their watch.


Turtur said yesterday the Armstrong issue had been ''a kick in the guts'', then added: ''We have to deal with it and make it better for the future for the young athletes and people who follow the sport. Our responsibility now is to make it fair and honest for everyone.''

Asked if the UCI was at all accountable, Turtur said: ''Speaking [of] the past, all I can say is this - and I agree with what the president said - that the UCI operated in the confinements of the law of the land and the other parameters that were in place and did the best that they could with the testing procedures and everything else that were in place at the day.''

Did he empathise with now disillusioned cycling fans? ''They are feeling like me … I can appreciate it because I am feeling exactly that.''

Turtur said he would do his utmost to rid the sport of doping. ''Every aspect of it I can attack, I will.''

Turtur is confident a UCI management committee on Friday will chart a way forward. But asked whether, in hindsight, the UCI might have done better on the doping issue, he replied: ''There was nothing strong enough to go on. The USADA stuff came out mid this year. You cannot progress unless you have solid evidence. That wasn't available until now.''

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