FILE - In this Monday, July 12, 2004, file photo, US Postal Service team leader and five-time Tour de France winner Lance Armstrong, of Austin, Texas, speaks on his cell phone prior to a training session with his teammates in Limoges, central France. Nike forgave a contrite Tiger Woods after his infidelity was exposed. It welcomed back an apologetic Michael Vick once he served time for illegal dog-fighting. But the company dropped Lance Armstrong, Wednesday, Oct. 17, 2012, faster than the famed cycler could do a lap around the block.(AP Photo/Peter Dejong, File)
FILE - In this Monday, July 12, 2004, file photo, US Postal Service team leader and five-time Tour de France winner Lance Armstrong, of Austin, Texas, speaks on his cell phone prior to a training session with his teammates in Limoges, central France. Nike forgave a contrite Tiger Woods after his infidelity was exposed. It welcomed back an apologetic Michael Vick once he served time for illegal dog-fighting. But the company dropped Lance Armstrong, Wednesday, Oct. 17, 2012, faster than the famed cycler could do a lap around the block.(AP Photo/Peter Dejong, File)
Foto de archivo del 24 de julio de 2005 del ciclista estadounidense Lance Armstrong en el Tour de Francia. (AP Photo/Peter Dejong, File)
FILE- In this July 24, 2004, file photo, US Postal Service team leader and five-time Tour de France winner Lance Armstrong, of Austin, Texas, is seen prior to a training session in Limoges, central France. Nike forgave a contrite Tiger Woods after his infidelity was exposed. It welcomed back an apologetic Michael Vick once he served time for illegal dog-fighting. But the company dropped Lance Armstrong, Wednesday, Oct. 17, 2012, faster than the famed cycler could do a lap around the block. (AP Photo/Peter Dejong, File)
International Cycling Union President Pat McQuaid listens during an interview after the fourth stage of the Tour of Beijing in Beijing Friday, Oct. 12, 2012. McQuaid has defended his organization's efforts to catch drug cheats in the wake of a damning report on Lance Armstrong's doping practices. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan)
President of the International Cycling Union Pat McQuaid speaks during an interview after the fourth stage of the Tour of Beijing in Beijing, Friday, Oct. 12, 2012. McQuaid has defended his organization's efforts to catch drug cheats in the wake of a damning report on Lance Armstrong's doping practices. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan)
AIGLE, Switzerland (AP) ? The final word on Lance Armstrong's seven Tour de France titles could come Monday when cycling's governing body gives its response to the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency report that paints the American as a longtime drug cheat.
The UCI received USADA's 200-page report last week and has until the end of the month to decide whether to ratify USADA's decision to strip Armstrong of his seven Tour victories or appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport.
USADA banned Armstrong for life and said he should lose his titles because of his involvement in the "most sophisticated, professionalized and successful doping program that sport has ever seen."
In a statement Friday, the cycling body said UCI President Pat McQuaid will hold a news conference in Geneva on Monday to "inform on the UCI position concerning the USADA decision on the Armstrong case."
The USADA report has already cost Armstrong key sponsors, including Nike and Anheuser-Busch. Armstrong also stepped down Wednesday as chairman of the Livestrong cancer charity he founded.
Tour director Christian Prudhomme is waiting on the UCI's decision before removing Armstrong's name from the record books as the race prepares to celebrate its centenary edition next year.
Armstrong won consecutive Tours from 1999-2005. Prudhomme said the Tour will have no official winners for the seven races Armstrong won if he is stripped of his victories by the UCI.
A decision to not reassign Armstrong's victories would leave a seven-year hole in the record books. It would also mark a shift in how Tour organizers treated similar cases in the past.
When Alberto Contador was stripped of his 2010 Tour victory for a doping violation, organizers held a ceremony to award the race winner's yellow jersey to Luxembourg's Andy Schleck. In 2006, Oscar Pereiro was awarded the victory and a place in the record books after the doping disqualification of American rider Floyd Landis.
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