Amsterdam: Independent investigators have exonerated seven times champion Lance Armstrong of doping during the 1999 Tour de France and found the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) behaved in ways "completely inconsistent" with testing rules.
Dutch law firm Scholten, assigned by the International Cycling Union to investigate the case, referred in a statement on Wednesday to "misconduct" by WADA and the French national doping lab LNDD.
French sports daily L'Equipe reported last August that it had access to laboratory documents and six of Armstrong's urine samples collected on the 1999 Tour showed "indisputable" traces of the blood-boosting drug erythropoietin (EPO).
Dutch lawyer Emile Vrijman, a former director of the Netherlands national anti-doping agency, was appointed by the UCI last October to investigate the allegations.
American Armstrong, who first won the Tour that year and retired after his record seventh consecutive victory last July, has always denied taking banned substances.
In February the UCI revealed its chief medical officer Mario Zorzoli had provided the newspaper with the documents.
Zorzoli said he must have provided all the forms but only so the journalist could write an article proving Armstrong never asked to use drugs after successfully overcoming testicular cancer.
Zorzoli was suspended for a month but reinstated in March.
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