After stripping Lance Armstrong of his seven Tour De France wins, Travis Tygart, the chief executive of the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency, said the incident made for an unhappy day in the sports world.

"It is a sad day for all of us who love sport and our athletic heroes," Tygart said in a statement. "This is a heartbreaking example of how the win-at-all-costs culture of sport, if left unchecked, will overtake fair, safe and honest competition. For clean athletes, it is a reassuring reminder that there is hope for future generations to compete on a level playing field without the use of performance-enhancing drugs."

Armstrong will lose his titles after deciding not to pursue arbitration in the drug case brought against him by Tygart and the USADA.

Armstrong has said Tygart's investigation against him is unfair and "an unconstitutional witch hunt."

"Regardless of what Travis Tygart says, there is zero physical evidence to support his outlandish and heinous claims," Armstrong said. "The only physical evidence here is the hundreds of controls I have passed with flying colors."

In addition to being stripped of his cycling victories, Armstrong will also be banned from the sport, despite the fact that he has already retired.