<b> Seven-time Tour de France winner Lance Armstrong faces being stripped of his titles and banned from cycling for life after announcing he will not contest charges levelled by the United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA). </b>
American Armstrong said in a statement that he is “finished with this nonsense” and insisted he is innocent but did not want to spend any further effort clearing his name.
He said: "There comes a point in every man’s life when he has to say, ‘Enough is enough’. For me, that time is now.
“I have been dealing with claims that I cheated and had an unfair advantage in winning my seven Tours since 1999.”
However Armstrong’s achievements are set to be wiped from the record books.
Asked what actions USADA intended to impose, spokeswoman Annie Skinner said in an email: “A loss of all results from August 1, 1998 and a lifetime ban from participating any sport sanctioned by a signatory to the WADA Code.”
That’s kind of shitty, IMO PED’s being banned from sports is stupid, the only people that truly care are in the gov’t, its like any sport, if I go to a NFL game I want to see big plays, hard hits, etc. and if takes players on PED’s to get that so be it, for the price of tickets I want to be entertained to the fullest.
Not that I really care but, it seems kind of stupid. To my knowledge he has never failed a drug test. This is all over some “teammates” saying they saw something in the refrigerator. If they don’t believe the drug tests, or Lance’s insistance that he is not guilty…What the Hell else is he supposed to do?
I completely agree. I think its stupid. There are far more dangerous substances out there that are legal. It keeps professional sports competitive… i know when i go to MLB games i want to see 100+mph pitchers and 500+ft homeruns.
Slippery slope to let PEDs be taken. I do think this has gone a little far but there need to be limits set on what can be done. Let in PEDs and it is going to escalate hugely…
Raise the basketball nets, put mines in the football fields,shark pits in the baseball field, exploding hockey pucks with lasers and razor blade sticks.
The thing is even if he was on something, you are trying to tell me that hes 1 out of thousands of competitors around him on something?
If not, anyone else NOT beating him whos also on something should take up checkers or COD on xBox… becasue you still got beat.
Who cares, really? The dude doesnt look like the incredible hulk for fucks sake and clearly works his ass off. There have been other people caught on shit that got beat by him, and probably hundreds of other people not on anything, so I call that a wash.
Exactly. Even if he was on something winning it 7 years in a row is incredible. The dudes an amazing athlete. He won the Leadville 100 (100 mile mtn bike race in Colorado at an average elevation of around 10000’) smashed the course record all while riding the last 10 or so miles on a flat tire. Then the following year he got his ass handed to him in the same race lol.
ANY racing series of good value: After every race, the winning car (and a couple more) get tore down to ensure they were following the rules of the series. That’s why until after that point, all results are unofficial. But people know that if someone’s constantly winning, and have gone through the process so many times, they realize that the car is fine and the driver is just highly skilled.
The problem w/ Armstrong is that so many people WANT to believe he’s not that skilled. That for someone to be that good, they have to be abusing drugs, or doping.
Does anyone remember who came in second this 7 times he won the tour? No. I can guarantee they trained just as hard, if not harder than Armstrong and lost. That’s bullshit.
I expected better out of you. That’s like kids in school who work just in hard but still fail tests simply because they don’t get it. I studied for maybe two tests my whole life, and not for a long time, but I still got excellent grades compared to kids who studied twice as hard. Is that bullshit?
Working the same as someone else does not make up for NATURAL skills and talent.
It does suck for the second place rider. Just as bad as it does for the rest of the competitors. Plain and simple…he could not be proven guilty in 10? years.
After that many years of litigation I would give the yellow jersey back immediately after wiping my ass with it.
They grasped at straws long enough to have Armstrong throw his hands up and walk away. Nothing else.
I’ve been watching the Tour de France for many years…Armstrongs domination ranks right up there with the Jordan/Pippen days with the Chicago Bulls.
This year was EASILY the worst Tour I’ve seen. I’ve never seen such a pile of spineless followers in my life.
i’m down with that. I think like 99.99999999% of pro athlete’s are taking something banned. the funny part is, they were trying to determine who his titles might go to if/when they are taken from him. turns out nearly everyone who stood on podeums with him were busted for PEDs
funny that such steroids never showed up on the over 500 tests they made him take then.
the thing i can’t get over was the judo guy getting kicked out of the olympics for smoking pot. i mean, you might as well ban people for smoking cigarettes, unless there is some clause that you can get kicked out for just braking the law.