Michele Ferrari, the former doctor of disgraced US cyclist Lance Armstrong, has denied accusations he was a key figure in the doping scheme, he said in statement posted on his website on Wednesday.

The Italian was handed a life ban in July by the US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA), which in August issued a life ban to Armstrong and stripped him of his seven Tour de France victories.

In the wake of USADA's revelation of more than 1,000 pages of evidence in a report last week to the International Cycling Union (ICU), Armstrong stepped down on Wednesday as chairman of the Livestrong cancer charity and was dropped by sponsor Nike.