updated 11:48 a.m. ET Sept. 18, 2005

Lance Armstrong won’t be getting back on his bike after all.

After recent hints he might return to the Tour de France next summer to “yank the chains” of the French, the seven-time champion said Thursday that defending his reputation against allegations of doping during his 1999 win had soured any thoughts of returning to the event he dominated.

“I’m sick of this,” Armstrong said during a late-afternoon conference call.

“Sitting here today, dealing with all this stuff again, knowing if I were to go back, there’s no way I could get a fair shake — on the roadside, in doping control, or the labs,” he said.

A moment later, Armstrong added, “I think it’s better that way. I’m happy with the way my career went and ended and I’m not coming back.”

Armstrong spoke with reporters hours after a nasty tug of war broke out between the bosses of the international cycling union and the World Anti-Doping Agency over who leaked documents used by the French newspaper L’Equipe to accuse him of using performance-enhancing drugs.

During a 45-minute question-and-answer session, the cyclist and his handlers left little doubt whom they believed was responsible: WADA chief Dick Pound.

It was Pound who set off another round of charges and countercharges earlier Thursday by accusing cycling union boss Hein Verbruggen of supplying documents used by a French newspaper to charge that Armstrong used the blood-boosting drug EPO during his first tour win in 1999.

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Armstrong, who has repeatedly denied ever using banned drugs, said he was the victim of a “witch hunt” after the report came out last month in L’Equipe, France’s leading sports daily.

Armstrong said he was concerned Pound might be seeking revenge for an open letter he sent to newspapers and the WADA chief several years ago, defending his sport against the widely held notion that cycling was rife with performance-enhancing drugs.

“I was not trying to say that Dick was bad guy or a crook,” Armstrong said of his letter, “but I might want to say that today. ... He’s trying to divert attention from the serious ethical issues involving WADA and himself.”

Slide show   The 2005 Tour See images from Lance Armstrong's seventh straight Tour de France victory.

His agent and attorney went even further, accusing Pound of smearing Armstrong in public without conclusive proof or due process. They also said Pound had a hand in ensuring that an identifying code was included with the results of tests for EPO conducted by a French lab on Armstrong’s urine samples six years after they were taken.

If true, that would violate WADA’s own protocol requiring that any tests be done strictly for purposes of research.

Calls seeking comment from Pound at both his WADA office and home in Montreal were not immediately returned Thursday.

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