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Photo: The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.

Pat McQuaid, President of the Union Cycliste Internationale, UCI, informs about the position of the UCI regarding the decision from USADA in the case of Lance Armstrong, during a press conference in Geneva, Switzerland, on Monday, Oct. 22, 2012. (AP Photo/Keystone, Salvatore Di Nolfi)

Lance Armstrong was stripped of his seven Tour de France titles and banned for life by cycling's governing body Monday following a report from the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency that accused him of leading a massive doping program on his teams.

UCI President Pat McQuaid announced that the federation accepted the USADA's report on Armstrong and would not appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport.

"Lance Armstrong has no place in cycling and he deserves to be forgotten in cycling," McQuaid said at a news conference. "This is a landmark day for cycling."

The decision clears the way for Tour de France organizers to officially remove Armstrong's name from the record books, erasing his consecutive victories from 1999-2005.

Tour director Christian Prudhomme has said the race would go along with whatever cycling's governing body decides and will have no official winners for those years.

Armstrong's representatives had no immediate comment.

USADA said Armstrong should be banned and stripped of his Tour titles for "the most sophisticated, professionalized and successful doping program that sport has ever seen" within his U.S. Postal Service and Discovery Channel teams. He also loses all race results achieved since August 1998.