Lance Armstrong has said he is “not surprised” that 18 top riders in the 1998 Tour de France have been named by the French Senate as having taken the blood-boosting agent EPO.

The embattled International Cycling Union were today meeting in an effort to draw a line under the Lance Armstrong affair and amid calls for a change of the organisation's leadership.

London is facing competition from five other bids to host a stage in the 2005 Tour de France.