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Download Dick Pound says even Lance Armstrong's staunchest US supporters couldn't brush aside the investigation and subsequent lifetime cycling ban handed down by an American-backed anti-doping agency. "The good thing about this is it's a made-in-America conclusion," said Pound, the former head of the World Anti-Doping Agency. Pound says in order for Armstrong to be branded a dope cheat in his homeland, the probe and penalties needed to be spearheaded by the United States Anti-Doping Agency. "The biggest thing about all this is it's a US organization that did the investigation and laid the charges and it is coming up with the sentence," Pound, a Canadian told AFP from his home in Montreal. "If it happened in Switzerland or something like that the United States wouldn't have believed it at all. "What doesn't happen in the US never happened." Pound says Armstrong knew he was in a no-win situation and that is why he made the decision to drop his fight against the drug charges levied by the USADA. "I guess the thought of all of this coming out was enough to have him say 'alright I will declare a victory and pull out.'" Pound wonders why it took so long before Armstrong decided to give up fighting the doping charges. Armstrong, who retired from cycling last year, said he passed hundreds of drug tests during his career and adhered to the rules in place at the time of his seven | 
