USA Cycling has been notified by the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) that five U.S. riders — Tom Danielson, George Hincapie, Levi Leipheimer, Christian Vande Velde and David Zabriskie — have each accepted six-month suspensions, effective Sept. 1, 2012, as a result of their testimony in the Lance Armstrong doping investigation.

Commenting on the sanctions USA Cycling President and CEO Steve Johnson said “I am glad to see the release of the reasoned decision by USADA and the official announcement of the sanctions accepted by the riders who participated in the investigation."

"I would like to personally acknowledge the extraordinary courage of these riders who placed their careers on the line in order to come forward with their experiences of past doping practices. While this is an extremely difficult time for the sport, I believe that riders of today understand that doping is intolerable, that it will be discovered, and that a decision to engage in doping in any form is senseless."

According to USA Cycling it remains committed to a drug-free sport and fully supports the efforts by the USADA, WADA, the UCI and the IOC to ensure a competitive environment that is free from performance enhancing substances and methods.

In 2011 alone, USADA performed 989 tests on cycling athletes, both in-competition and out-of-competition, while the International Cycling Union (UCI) conducted 13,745 medical control tests worldwide.