In a startling day of allegations and confessions, core members of the cycling teams that helped Lance Armstrong win seven Tour de France titles acknowledged publicly, for the first time, that they had cheated by taking banned substances.

George Hincapie, Armstrong's close friend and teammate during all seven of his Tour de France wins, broke his silence on the matter Wednesday, issuing a statement in which he confessed to doping and acknowledged providing testimony to investigators. Fellow Armstrong teammate Levi Leipheimer, in a letter to The Wall Street Journal, also admitted doping for the first time.

These admissions came as the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency - the enforcement arm for drug use in American sports - issued a blistering 202-page report detailing its decision to ban former cycling champion Lance Armstrong from competition for life and strip him of his titles.

The report summarized testimony from a total of 11 former Armstrong teammates who met with the USADA to discuss the use of banned substances and methods on Armstrong's former U.S. Postal Service cycling team. The list includes many of the country's top pro cyclists: Frankie Andreu, Michael Barry, Tom Danielson, Tyler Hamilton, George Hincapie, Floyd Landis, Levi Leipheimer, Stephen Swart, Christian Vande Velde, Jonathan Vaughters and David Zabriskie. All of these riders have now admitted to taking banned substances.

USADA posted the full report on its Web site.

The testimony and other evidence released Wednesday showed what USADA alleged to be a vast network of organized doping orchestrated by Armstrong and a handful of associates that was designed to push human bodies beyond their natural capabilities.

The 'evidence is