Middle-aged businessmen are increasingly using drugs to win amateur cycling events, a damning report has found.
A major investigation by the Cycling Independent Reform Commission (CIRC) found performance-enhancing drugs in amateur cycling are becoming endemic - and the sport remains gripped by a "culture of doping".
It also believes up to 90% of professional riders are still using drugs, and disgraced cyclist Lance Armstrong was "protected" by key figures in the sport's governing body, the International Cycling Union (UCI).
While it found no evidence that UCI officials were paid to turn a blind eye, it said "going after the cheaters was perceived as a witch-hunt that would be detrimental to the image of cycling".
At the lower end of the sport, the CIRC reported a sharp uptake in drug use among amateur cyclists, and said some competitors were turning their backs on events because of the numbers of drug cheats taking part.
It blamed the rising use on "ease of access to drugs via gyms and the internet, the reduction in costs for substances, a spread of knowledge in means and methods of administration, and a lack of funding for regular testing at the amateur level."
The report raised concerns about doping in over-40s racing, saying: "Masters races were also said to have middle-aged businessmen winning on EPO, with some of them training as hard as professional riders and putting in comparable performances."
EPO, or erythropoietina, is a hormone injected under the skin to stimulate red blood cell production.
The report said youth cycling was "particularly vulnerable" as anti-doping testing is concentrated at the elite level so drugs may go undetected.
"If youth riders want to reach higher ranks, the incentives are there to dope at an early age," the report said.
"As a result, some managers try to identify good quality amateur riders in their mid-teens to sign them clean before they got exposed to doping."
Sky Sports presenter Jacquie Beltrao said it was a "pretty brave" report, and the UCI needed to do something to clean up cycling's "tarnished image".
She added: "They believe nine out of ten of cyclists are still using performance-enhancing drugs - they are just using smaller quantities.
"And this group of people who are below the upper echelons of the sport, but still competing, so you might have someone who has a day job, but is very into his cycling and competes at weekends, those people - the middle-aged businessmen - they are also increasingly taking drugs because they become slightly obsessed by the sport and winning."
The report made a number of recommendations, including whistleblower desks so cyclists can report suspected drug users, and surprise late-night drug tests.
The CIRC, led by Dick Marty, a Swiss politician and former state prosecutor, was set up following allegations Armstrong, 43, made cash donations to the UCI in a bid to cover up doping failures.
Armstrong, who defeated cancer to go on to win seven straight Tour de France races, was stripped of his titles in 2012 and banned from the sport for life.
The commission said it found no links between donations of $125,000 (£83,000) he made to the UCI and a cover up of his drug test failures.
However, the CIRC gave a damning assessment of efforts by the UCI under past presidents Hein Verbruggen and Pat McQuaid to shield Armstrong from investigation.
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