Lance Armstrong Drops Fight Against Doping Charges--will lose his 7 Tour de France titles
 

From the NY Times: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/24/sp...titles.html?hp

"His decision means he will almost certainly be stripped of his seven Tour titles, the bronze medal he won at the 2000 Olympics and all other titles, awards and money he won from August 1998 on. It also means he will be barred for life from competing, coaching or having any official role with any Olympic sport or other sport that follows the World Anti-Doping Code."

wow thats pretty crazy!

I have always that the anti-doping groups have had witch hunt for him for years. He has never failed a drug test and from what I understand all of the evidence they have now against him is testimony of other riders who have tested positive (although I could be wrong about that).

Cycling is a European sport and they have despised the fact that the best rider in the word is an American so they have been after him for years. He likely was never going to compete on that level again so all he was going to do in defending himself is waste money on lawyers.

Good job douche bag bureaucrat. You tarnished a hero.

Your family must be so proud.

I only support performance impairing drugs!

Plea bargained. Why would you just stop "fighting".
He fought during his race, fought cancer and now he quits?
Or wait, he did quit on his girlfriend when she had brain tumor.

Big fan of Lance but as all rabid cycling fans like me know.. he is guilty as hell - thus the desire to drop the fight

have a think about whats involved to win 7 tour de frances plus fight for your integrity at the same time

Sure, but all the guys he was racing against were doping as well.

That makes that shit fair and square.

It sets an example

Damn,that's a kick in the sack,surprising he just dropped like that,if you're innocent you fight to the end

wow.

if he is innocent and gets stripped of those medals... that is some bs.

Fuck your example.

HE set an example - there is no drug in the world that makes you Lance Armstrong.

It's the US doping agency that's going after him, and technically they cant strip him of his Tour de France wins.

But it has been the European media and groups that have been after him for years.

not to take away from his accomplishments, but even his own team mates have accused him for years.:2 cents:

That's because the sport's biggest race takes place there and has more popularity. There's a ton more evidence against him other than just racers. I've maintained for years that he's guilty as hell and he used strong arm legal tactics to silence anyone who came out and revealed anything damning against him. When you have your maid, your friends, your ex girlfriend all come out and say they saw him shooting up before races, at some point there's enough smoke to suggest a fire. The doping testing is so far behind on the latest lab concocted epo formulas, that's its easy to test clean. How many of you think Barry Bonds never used, even though he never failed an mlb drug test.

I guess it's time to give up on the "live strong" bracelet. His "charity" only has to pay out 10% of what it takes in on the preferred scam. He's been at it for years so in reality I'm sure him and his children and maybe even their children will be quite comfortable without the titles.

There is nothing you can say that will take a thing away from his accomplishments. At age 21 he was World Champion, yet some magic drug made that happen?

As far as I'm concerned Lancer could be taking coke, oxy, shark piss and vampire blood and he's still one of the greatest of all time.

I'm 100% sure Barry Bonds doped. I am not saying Lance hasn't. I admit that I have only followed this casually so I only know what I have seen in the big stories. One of those stories that I saw/read from a few years back talked about how there were several media outlets in Europe that were on a mission to take him down because they didn't like the brash Texan kicking their asses at their sport.

Maybe he was doping all along. I guess I wonder why it matters now. He is retired and no longer competing. I can see if he announced he was going to comeback and run the race again, but that isn't happening. Will the retroactively give the wins to whoever it was that finished in 2nd place all those years?

The whole thing just sounds kind of crazy.

He won those races, no matter how you want to re-legislate history, he beat the world's best on the road.

Personally I don't give a fuck. I've rode bikes, motorized and non for a long time and I've never really gave a fuck about him. But I do know enough that he could have very well been doping and never got caught. If he was and whether you consider that fair is up to you and well... I guess the people who taketh away.

Cycling has had chemical influence since they attached one wheel to another wheel.

No real fan gives a shit. In the 90's it was EPO, at the turn of the century it was frogs filling their water bottles with cognac.

The Tour is a month of racing across 2100 miles, in the middle of the summer. No drug makes you win that. "Doping" in the tour is like sharpening a razor blade. I said it above, and it's true: no drug can make you Lance Armstrong.

he had some good chemicals they now can find in their blood taken years ago

I'm actually tempted to agree with you. I've gone back and forth, but part of me feels that performance enhancing drugs in all sports should be made legal and they should just stop all of the testing. The average person can go out and get a prescription for testosterone or HGH, but yet the best athletes in the world are told they can't take any. If all of it was legal, then all of the athletes would still be on a level playing field.

:( This is not making any good for us bicycle fans / scene ... :(

The NEW TDF winners:

1999 - Alex Zulle
2000 - Jan Ullrich
2001 - Jan Ullrich
2002 - Joseba Beloki
2003 - Jan Ullrich
2004 - Andreas Klöden
2005 - Ivan Basso

Which means that Jan Ullrich is one of the most winning ever in TDF :upsidedow

Jan Ulrich has been sentenced for doping already, i doubt that will happen

and i know Lance Armstrong is some kind of hero for many - but none of the top drivers over the last 20 years was clean - some just were not caught

If your guilty you give up if your innocent you fight like hell.

even if you go broke doing it? i don't think so..

they need to drop it, with nothing but circumstantial evidence this is nothing more than roger clemens all over again and that was a complete waste of time that proved nothing in the end.

They all doped.

I just can't muster up any outrage about it.
So heres...

http://www.faithmouse.com/oprah-winfrey-pancake.jpg

I really don't think that the pancake would have survived long enough around Oprah, to make it to the top of her head.

q f t

I haven't been following this too closely but I read a news report this morning that claimed they had dozens of people willing to testify...

(source: NY Times)

Makes me wonder what's really going on.

Multiple first hand witnesses are beyond circumstantial.

So funny how you guys think you just stick a needle in your body and it magically goes to work. Brb lance injecting right before a race...PLEASE GO

I still don't see how you just quit. There has to be reasons.
Good write-up here

http://sports.yahoo.com/news/lance-a...nnocence-.html

multiple first hand witnesses witnessing what exactly? Was he saying "here is my steroids! I'm going to be injecting them now!" or did they see him take some b12 shots and assume the worst?

circumstantial evidence is exactly that.. look it up..

how do you know the evidence is only circumstantial? and enough circumstancial evidence can be enough for a guilty verdict.

nobody is saying Lance Armstrong isn't the greatest cyclist ever, the same as nobody is saying Barry Bonds might not be the greatest baseball player ever and Roger Clemens not one of the best pitchers ever. I think Ben Johnson is the greatest 100 meter sprinter ever, he destroyed the world record. Usain Bolt is on something no doubt, he just hasn't got caught.

it's a tough call, the chemists are always going to be one or five steps ahead of the drug testing, so it seems the answer is to just let athletes take whatever they want. The moral dilemma is that there are kids out there who want to be the best and some with the talent and drive to be the best, you'd be telling them that to win the gold and make millions there's only one way - and that's taking performance enhancing drugs and many of them are potentially very dangerous, where's FloJo these days - dead from cancer.

Lance Armstrong without doping would not have won what he did competing against those who were doping. But if the playing field had been completely drug free it seems most believe he'd have been the best.