When I woke up this morning I about died when I saw that Lance Armstrong was giving up the fight against USADA charges of doping, which will see him stripped of all 7 of his titles, his gold medal and hand him a lifetime ban from cycling.
I have been dealing with claims that I cheated and had an unfair advantage in winning my seven Tours since 1999. 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.
Obviously Armstrong is anything but a quitter. For god's sake the man survived late stage cancer. This was still beyond surprising to me. Here is a guy who passed every conceivable test put in front of him and yet the USADA is coming after him with a bunch of eyewitness accounts from the likes of proven doper Floyd Landis and others from his team. I can't imagine that anyone who is poked and prodded as much as Armstrong would be able to pull off 500 clean tests over the years without so much as a false positive. Maybe he did. Bonds got away with it for a long time.. The man has done so much both for and outside the sport that at this point it is time to let it go. I'm not sure that is is an admission of guilt as much as it is just capitulation after years of fighting an uphill battle.
It is very hard however to believe that he didn't when every single person it seems in cycling has been. Maybe this is why the sport seems to be such a joke nowadays. Granted, the USADA now has to submit a written explanation and rationale to the World doping body and the international cycling union I think. Maybe Lance is counting on that to be so lacking that public opinion stays his way allowing him to keep his titles. I don't know. Is this just a witch hunt? Or did Lance pull off one of the greatest doped up runs in sports?
Who cares about giving the titles up, he keeps the endorsement money and all other forms of compensation. He won't be cashing in anyways due to the controversy so let it die.
I really haven't followed the story much but what proof do they have? It seems a bunch of he said/she said being thrown around and when it came down to hard evidence (drug testing) Armstrong passed them all.
supposedly all the evidence they have will be released because whoever has actual authority to strip him of the title is requiring it (I think it is the International cycling body)
What this seems to amount to is Lance saying I'm not going to bother fighting the USADA because they don't have the jursidiction to just strip him of the titles and the International Cycling Union is in a turf war with the USADA over this. When lance declined to have an arbitration hearing over this yesterday, the USADA is now required to submit a written and reasoned explanation as to why they believe he should be stripped of everything and apparently cash earnings and prizes as well.
Apparently not. I hate to get political...I'm trying to cut back...but this is a similar situation with the Romney tax returns. I know people screaming foul and claiming that he must be doing something illegal because he won't prove that he didn't. I asked one guy, isn't the commonly accepted burden of proof in our society that the accuser must present evidence of the accusation? Of course they said, 'no' because they disagree with Romney and his political agenda or, in some cases, they don't like that he's rich (for real, that's their justification).
Obviously it's a bit different and I understand that there is some cause for concern because LA was so dominant in the sport...but he seems to have complied with all the standards up until this time so he should be left alone. The USADA should just wait until they have conclusive proof, not heresay from other discredited athletes.
These organizations keep the blood stored for a number of years and have the potential to catch LA if he did something wrong, why drag him through all of this until you can prove, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that he is a doper? That's what makes me feel this is more of a witch hunt than anything. Also, as someone pointed out, this does nothing positive for the sport as a whole and has probably been extremely detrimental to the growth of the sport in the US.
I realize that the USADA probably isn't concerned with how fast cycling is growing in America, but it should certainly be concerned about it's own reputation and at this point it literally has hundreds of pieces of evidence (passed drug tests) that indicate that this has become a personal mission of sorts for someone at that agency.
And who knows, maybe LA has been doping and has just managed to thwart the slow and outdated system...it's more than possible, but until they have solid proof, I'll just consider LA an accomplished and gifted athlete.
Regards
I'm fairly certain they don't have definitive proof, but multiple people in the cycling world--including his "teammates"--have openly talked to the media about occurences in which they've seen him using PEDs.
Is this a witch hunt? It sure seems like it to me. I'm not sure why the USADA would go after the sport's most prolific winner and athlete, as it will have a significant impact on the sport, especially in the US. Since his retirement, most Americans couldn't care less about the Tour de France. It reminds me of baseball and boxing, two sports whose fan bases have been largely disenfranchised by the widespread use of PEDs--if the best in the game are caught doping up, how are we supposed to believe the rest of them aren't? It's almost accepted in baseball at this point, with an unnamed player on the Red Sox last week claiming "upwards of 60% of players were using substances ahead of current testing standards." Go Lance
Pretty sure the USADA can't strip him of anything as it has to come from the cycling governing bodies. Also, he won a marathon last week; does he have to give that back too since apparently the USADA feels they can impose their will on anything and everything they come in contact with. Roger Goddell should use the USADA as his exit op since he'd fit right in.
This is the worst part: everyone who now gets the titles is...a doper!
http://deadspin.com/5937591/?utm_campaign=socialflow_deadspin_twitter&u…
After passing hundreds of drug tests....
What a joke. More proof the .gov is out of control.
They should just vacate all the titles for those seven years. It sucks to see the downfall of such a sporting icon but those years were insane as far as doping goes. Climbs have been significantly slower the last few years and a lot of the guys are still juicing.
I love cycling, it's just unfortunate it is such a dirty sport.
Did they find out how Armstrong botched his urine samples? No blood tests taken during his cycling career? There's not much I know about Lance Armstrong or cycling and I'm not a fan either...but it doesn't sound like there's any strong evidence to pin Armstrong down to these allegations besides a few witnesses.
lemond is always going to be my american cycling hero. he won it clean, and he picked up early on that LA was a fucking cheat.
very few of you know what the fuck you are talking about when it comes to cycling. i know a guy personally from undergrad days who eventually went pro with Mapei (if you never heard of that team you don't know shit about the UCI, cycling or anything that has happened for the last 10 years). the word inside is that everyone knows that LA is a doper but people were afraid to touch him because he is one vindicative son of a bitch. he will come at you with all of his lawyers, blackmailers, etc. like some common thug. the only reason landis and andreu finally spoke up is because one had nothing left to lose (remember floyd's absolute denials?) and andreu was in a box. i am waiting for leipheimer and the rest of the "legends" to fess up too.
before, LA accused the french of some anti-americanism; pretty smart tactic for a pretty dumb populace. then when lemond got in on the act, what could you say? lemond has beef with the french going back to getting cheated in '84 out of his first TDF win by Hinault and the french coach. lemond is still steamed about that to this day. why would he give credence to a purely french conspiracy?
there is actually plenty of physical evidence against LA; he merely got off on technicalities. he has SIX blood samples, A and B, that were tested positive for EPO. the samples needed to be tossed because of mishandling. ironically, LA is the one accusing others of mishandling his samples now. he should be so lucky, because this happened before his 3rd victory and his legend would have been shattered a lot sooner.
the chest beating jingoism here is fucking hilarious. at that level, people don't ride for their countries, they ride for themselves. and look at all the TDF legends that have been knocked off their pedestals over the years: contador, ullrich, pantani, riis. almost every fucking winner since indurain has lost their fucking title. (who wants to take the over/under on wiggins?)
this sport is cheating personified. i have no animus against LA for cheating and lying. that's how to win these things apparently. but all this yahoos defending him on purely nationalistic reasons is just retarded. you are truly useful idiots for his very lucrative business empire hocking chinese made plastic bracelets and nutrition supplements.
Take a xanax buddy, no one cares about the UCI or whatever you're rambling about. Didn't see any jingoism here either.
i'm out of xanax.
Gotta love everything French. Can't wait for the tax death penalty to be enforced and all the wealthy either go broke or leave the land of surrender.
omg the jersey might eventually get passed down to me! i might have a chance!
How to fix doping: Legalize doping.
Actually, there seems to be plenty of evidence. It just appears the "drugs" (actually "tactics" is a better word because some of these aren't really drugs in the normal sense) LA used were hard to detect at the time. It appears he not only doped, but encouraged others to as well (makes sense - if everyone is doing it then it is just a part of the sport rather than cheating, and its harder to justify harsh penalties).
In any case, this is mostly a big la di da. I think most sports should legalize the most common "drugs/tactics/supplements/tools" as long as they don't cause long - term damage and most athletes can use them (e.g. a significant percentage of the population isn't allergic or otherwise unable to consume).
Then we can stop worshiping/glorifying these things as the ultimate triumph of human athleticism and instead cheer something thats just as legitimate: the ultimate triumph of athleticism + effort + ingenuity.
Science will win in the end biotchez
"USADA also said it had 10 former Armstrong teammates ready to testify against him. Other than suggesting they include Landis and Tyler Hamilton, both of whom have admitted to doping offenses, the agency has refused to say who they are or specifically what they would say."
Ok, Landis is scum but 10 people standing up and saying that he took them sounds credible to me.
I have 20 former teammates ready to say he didn't take them, but I don't feel comfortable releasing their names and I can't divulge exactly what they are going to say, but rest assured this is all legit.
Regards
Good quick description of blood doping/EPA for those unfamiliar with it.
Start it around 9:15
LA got what he deserves.
Skip explains exactly how I feel about the situation:
I really don't get how stripping someone of their titles so far from when they were won is a major punishment
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