USDA banning Lance Armstrong for life from the sport of cycling and stripping him of his 7 Tour de France titles for blood doping and steroids http://espn.go.com/olympics/cycling...ed-performance-enhancing-drugs-cycling-career owned.
So they're basing it off emails that he had with another cheat in Landis? He passed all the tests and unless they show us what those emails say then I won't believe he cheated. This was all sour grapes by the French as far as I'm concerned. Until they can prove he cheated which is the way it should be then he's innocent.
Like any other sport where titles get taken away, who cares? the races still happened like it or not.
Sounds a bit like bountygate haha. Supposed "evidence" that these guys have. The dude has taken a ridiculous number of tests and come back negative in them all.
It is funny though how even though the bikes are better, the training is better and the athletes in better condition, the times for races like the tour de france have been getting steadily slower and slower as the testing for doping got better and better.... edit: this is an interesting statistical analysis (via a BBC podcast called "more or less" - a very good show if like 69.7% of the population you are interested in statistics) about the whether or not the tour de france is now clean - http://downloads.bbc.co.uk/podcasts/radio4/moreorless/moreorless_20120721-2350a.mp3
i hear there was mix up of samples it was neil armstrong caught and disqualified from being 1st man on moon, buzz aldrin is now the first man on the moon.
If he was innocent, he would have taken the fight to an independent arbitrator. Face it, he is guilty and is using the phony excuse of tired to attempt to save his reputation.
I agree. In this case most of the other competitors have cheated too so why the witch hunt? How many of the last winners have been stripped? I bet "Pound, Dick" is throwing a huge party today! That ass has wanted to bust Lance for like 15 years. Lance is no prince but the french have hated that he won with a passion. I for one do not think framing Lance is beyond a possibility here. They certainly could not catch him on a drug test. By the way I think he probably cheated, I just hate the way they went about trying to catch him at all cost. After 15 years of fighting for his name I can see why he is tired and giving up.
Apparently (according to the US cycling authorities) there were 10 of his former teammates willing to testify against him that he was effectively the ringleader of doping within that team.
everyone cares - no-one respects Ben Johnson because he was a proven drug cheat. There is no proof here but his image is still massively tarnished and his ability to get sponsorship and endorsement deals must have gone down by a huge margin
Please the USADA is a joke.... They're looking for scalps. And considering Ben Johnson...is a joke. Carl Lewis who was awarded Johnsons Gold Medal, failed three drug tests in 1988, which the IOC covered up, and it was Lewis' allegations against Johnson when Lewis started getting his ass beat that lead to increased scrutiny of Johnson. Like Baseball, the entire track community was into it at the time.
Landis and the others were cheaters too. So they got a bunch of other druggies to point the finger at the guy that they really wanted to blame. I get it. I think he probably did what they are saying but I do not know if he was the "ring" leader or since they were never able to catch him they convinced the others to turn on Lance. The whole sport is cheating. How many legit winners have their been in the last 10 to 15 years?
I'll go you one further - doping and cycling have gone hand-in-hand for over a hundred years. It's crazy. There's probably never been a clean rider ever. Blood Doping in Cycling
I took performance enhancing drugs so I could have unprotected sex with a prostitute. Do I have to give my STDs back?
I don't really get your point - my point was in response to a statement that no-one cares if people are subsequently stripped of titles/medals when held to have cheated - when that is clearly not the case - you cannot argue that Armstrong's image and legacy has not been hugely damaged by this - I don't know or particularly care whether its true or not but its obviously not doing him any favours.
The "tired" defense is flimsy. With all the tests he passed, there's obviously some serious evidence he didn't want to come out, because he stood a good chance of otherwise winning at arbitration. Besides, it just fails in the face of common sense. The guy had cancer, survived, trained and won seven tours but he's too tired to sit around arbitration for a few days. Come on. Keeping it away from a final decision maker just means there will always be a question mark about the legitimacy and people are free to believe what they want. The particular sting of Armstrong's doping allegations is his image of a guy who worked hard, got cancer, came back and did it all through hard work. There's no doubt the guy worked hard but the addition of chemical enhancement really sweeps the legs out from under his image that he's an icon of the American dream: overcame adversity to win it all by sheer will and effort. It also undercuts all the Livestrong messaging about being healthy and how eating right and exercise is the key to success.
