Lance Armstrong gets life ban,loses 7 TDF,confesses he doped

dave_1

all done. Move on folks. Joke of a sport

Wily-Quixote

love the sport - hate the professional side of it. this is what happens when a pasttime becomes a job.

Yellow Peril

Wily-Quixote wrote:

love the sport - hate the professional side of it. this is what happens when a pasttime becomes a job.

I purposefully avoid the possibility of this by being a sh1t rider.

Can anyone summarise what happens to the status of those 7 Tours? I suppose any wealth accrued by LA in endorsements remains his unless there is/was any contractual breach.

fungus_the_muffin_man

That special bike they made on American Chopper might as well get weighed in then.

alwaystoohot

Yellow Peril wrote:

Wily-Quixote wrote:

love the sport - hate the professional side of it. this is what happens when a pasttime becomes a job.

I purposefully avoid the possibility of this by being a sh1t rider.

Can anyone summarise what happens to the status of those 7 Tours? I suppose any wealth accrued by LA in endorsements remains his unless there is/was any contractual breach.

I accept them, thank you. I shall now retire to give Wiggo and the other lads a chance next year.

carl_p

My take is those 7 years never happened. You can ignore the fact no-one won those races but also any amazing attack you witnessed was probably a result of the drugs/doping or whatever as well. The guys in 2nd and 3rd were probably also cheating. Great sport!

StillGoing

Anyone know if the actual runner up to those seven titles will be given the win or whether they've actually been caught themselves and the win being awarded to someone further down the field?

No_Ta_Doctor

It's up to ASO to decide if USADA remove his titles.
They'll probably just erase the results and leave it as "no winner", which is the right way to do this.

Probably a good job Lance hardly bothered with any other races :-(

indjke

How USADA can give away titles???
It's local national agency, it's not the UCI, not even WADA.
I can't understand

ALaPlage

Copy from BBC News.

Page last updated at 07:03 GMT+01:00, Friday, 24 August 2012
Armstrong ends drug charge fight

Lance Armstrong retired from professional cycling in 2011
US cycling star Lance Armstrong has announced he will no longer fight drug charges from the US anti-doping agency, ahead of a Friday deadline.

In a statement, the 40-year-old maintains he is innocent, but says he is weary of the "nonsense" accusations.

The US anti-doping agency (USADA) now says it will ban Armstrong from cycling for life and strip him of his seven Tour de France titles.

Armstrong retired from professional sport in 2011.

USADA alleges he used banned substances as far back as 1996, including the blood-booster EPO, steroid and blood transfusions.

Armstrong sued in federal court to block the charges but lost.

'Heartbreaking' case

"There comes a point in every man's life when he has to say, 'Enough is enough.' For me, that time is now," Armstrong said in the statement.

"I have been dealing with claims that I cheated and had an unfair advantage in winning my seven Tours since 1999.

"Over the past three years, I have been subjected to a two-year federal criminal investigation followed by Travis Tygart's [USADA's chief executive] unconstitutional witch hunt.

"The toll this has taken on my family, and my work for our foundation and on me leads me to where I am today - finished with this nonsense."

Armstrong had been given until 06:00 GMT on Friday to decide whether to continue fighting the USADA charges.

The agency has said that 10 of Armstrong's former teammates are prepared to testify against him.

The cyclist has accused USADA of offering "corrupt inducements" to other riders.

USADA also accuses Armstrong of being a "ring-leader" of systematic doping on his Tour de France winning teams.

Mr Tygart said shortly after Armstrong's statement that his agency would ban Armstrong from cycling for life and strip him of his titles, according to AP.

The chief executive described the case as a "heartbreaking" example of a win-at-all costs approach to sports.

However, Armstrong disputed that the USADA has the power to take away his titles.

"USADA lacks jurisdiction even to bring these charges," his statement said.

The cycling governing body the International Cycling Union (UCI) - which had backed Armstrong's challenge to challenge USADA's authority - has so far made no public comments on the latest developments.

Armstrong, who survived testicular cancer prior to his record-breaking Tour wins, retired after the 2005 Tour de France but made a comeback in 2009.

He retired for a second time in February 2011.

He now says he will be focusing on the work with his cancer charity.

disgruntledgoat

It's really galling to see him try and spin accepting these charges as some sort of hard luck story of him being victimised and with it attempting to sully USADA's credibility... all to avoid having witness testimony made public to alienate anyone who still admires him.

I was about to type out a huge rant but its all been said before, the man is a coward and a bully and as soon as somebody paints him into a corner he takes his ball home. He has no interest in accounting for that era of cycling only for being able to be seen to save his own skin.

LangerDan

The thread title is a wee bit incorrect - while he's been banned and stripped of the titles and says he won't contest, he also claims that USADA don't have the authority to do this - only his buddies in the UCI - so he doesn't quite "accept" it.

Either way, a good result and it would be nice to think that this would draw a line under the whole shambles but it won't. Like a fat drunk on a unicycle, the sport will wobble its way to its next doping crisis, like its always done.

EdgarAllenPoe

I'm not an Armstrong fan at all, I actually dislike the guy but stripping him of the titles come across as petty and vindictive. Especially as the entire peloton was at it. The only clean riders to complete those tours were on camera motorbikes.

ddraver

Don't we have a thread on this already?

milton50

It's really galling to see him try and spin accepting these charges as some sort of hard luck story of him being victimised and with it attempting to sully USADA's credibility... all to avoid having witness testimony made public to alienate anyone who still admires him.

It's amazing isn't it? Even when effectively admitting that his guilt can be proved he still surreptitiously puts enough doubt into the non-cycling public's mind that this is all a big witch hunt and he can't continue to defend himself because of his family.

chadders81

Sorry if this is a ridiculous question but why can't the authorities draw a line under everything let's say pre-2006 and acknowledge that loads of people were doping then and move on by making sure that their tests are now as effective as possible and hammering the cheats they catch now?

This can't be good for the sport.

ALaPlage

Here is the full statement from LA.

http://lancearmstrong.com/news-events/l ... st-23-2012

alanjay

EdgarAllenPoe wrote:

I'm not an Armstrong fan at all, I actually dislike the guy but stripping him of the titles come across as petty and vindictive. Especially as the entire peloton was at it. The only clean riders to complete those tours were on camera motorbikes.

Did you see some of those camera angles?

fat_tail

So it really was not about the bike but about the EPO ? :shock:

ShutUpLegs

Does this mean refunds for all those MADONE owners :?:

TMR

disgruntledgoat wrote:

I was about to type out a huge rant but its all been said before, the man is a coward...

I have to disagree. I don't think he's a coward, I think he's stupidly brave given his fight with cancer. I will agree that he's a bully and an egotistical arse though. Oh, and a cheating scumbag as well.

Gazzetta67

Paul Kimmage & David Walsh must be "Skipping" to work this morning.

raymondo60

Technically he has not been stripped of his T de F titles as yet

blazing_saddles

At least it should make the US Pro Challenge coverage a bit more interesting, tonight. :P

LangerDan

Raymondo60 wrote:

Technically he has not been stripped of his T de F titles as yet

Somebody's been busy on Wiki this morning - they've struck through all his TdFs, Tour de Suisse and Dauphine Libere results already.

Gazzetta67

Blazing Saddles wrote:

At least it should make the US Pro Challenge coverage a bit more interesting, tonight. :P

You must be joking - Smith was a team mate of Armstrong....it will all be "ehhhhhhh Hmmmmm cough cough oh look at those lovely mountains" and Kirby will be too busy laughing at his own jokes.

rick_chasey

Sad times.

KaRsKiN

Am I missing a trick here. Don't really know much about this to be honest.

He's never tested positive, so how can they claim he was taking drugs? Surely if the drugs tests come back negative then that should be that. If not then what's the point in having them?

rdt

KaRsKiN wrote:

Am I missing a trick here. Don't really know much about this to be honest.

He's never tested positive, so how can they claim he was taking drugs? Surely if the drugs tests come back negative then that should be that. If not then what's the point in having them?

Have you been living under a rock for the past half dozen years?

chevinhawk

Can anyone elucidate? How can the USADA, which has no jurisdiction over international cycling, strip Armstrong of his TdeF titles? Surely that can only be the UCI (or the organisers of the TdeF)?

disgruntledgoat

chevinhawk wrote:

Can anyone elucidate. How can the USADA, which has no jurisdiction over international cycling, strip Armstrong of his TdeF titles. Surely that can only be the UCI (or the organisers of the TdeF)?

His license was with US Cycling who employ USADA for their anti-doping programme. When he signed up to his license each year he signed up to their jurisdiction and rules.