Former cycling champion Lance Armstrong had blood transfusions during races, administered testosterone to himself and team-mates and orchestrated a 'code of silence' in the sport by threatening whistleblowers, doping investigators have alleged.

In a 200-page report, Armstrong is also accused of threatening to fire USPS team members who did not use performance enhancing drugs and is said to have paid $1million into the Swiss bank account of an Italian doctor alleged to have helped fake blood tests.

The U.S. Anti-Doping Agency said in a statement: 'The USPS Team doping conspiracy was professionally designed to groom and pressure athletes to use dan­gerous drugs, to evade detection, to ensure its secrecy and ultimately gain an unfair competitive advantage through superior doping practices.'