Lance Armstrong banned for life, forfeits titles

http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/more-sports/lance-armstrong-stripped-tour-de-france-titles-lifetime-ban-olympic-sports-drops-doping-appeal-article-1.1143295

  Quote

Disgraced cyclist Lance Armstrong will receive a lifetime ban from Olympic sports early Friday and be stripped of his record seven Tour de France titles after deciding to abandon his long fight against charges he led a sophisticated doping conspiracy throughout his career.

 

Armstrong announced Thursday night that he would disregard a midnight deadline the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency had given him to challenge the results of USADA’s two-year investigation of his legendary cycling teams, a probe that determined Armstrong used performance-enhancing drugs and blood transfusions.

 

“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 a statement claiming he was the victim of a 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.”

 

Surrendering saves Armstrong from watching his former teammates testify against him in arbitration, but it leaves the iconic cancer survivor vulnerable to a tidal wave of legal claims from sponsors, promotion insurers and even the U.S. government, who are positioned to demand the return of tens of millions in sponsorship dollars.

 

Unless Armstrong changes his mind before 2:01 ET, he will be disqualified from every competition he entered since Aug. 1, 1998, including the Tour de France races where he built his legend and the 2000 Summer Olympics, where he won a bronze medal.

damn

wait,......so this isn't an admission of guilt, hes just refusing to stand up to this stuff?

or is it?

because if it is thats just heartbreaking. So many people looked to this asshole for inspiration.

No it isn't an admission of guilt. He passed every single drug test anyone has ever given him. I think he had no choice cause they wouldn't let up on him, costing him a fortune in court.

Or at least that's what people say in favor of him. Could be a lie. Sad either way.

Giving up is not in his character. Something smells bad.

Good for him!

Fuck the haters

what I don't get is that even though people are willing to testify that they saw him use the drugs, that still doesn't explain how he passed all of the drug tests?

plus, isn't that just conjecture? hearsay? don't they need something concrete?

At least he has two balls.

They did have evidence, but Armstrong didn't pursue the fight because he didn't want it to come out. He chose the path of least resistance and greatest profitability to not only his legacy but his Livestrong bullshit.

  Quote

Armstrong, 40, walked away from the sport in 2011 without being charged after a two-year federal criminal investigation into many of the same accusations he faces from USADA. The federal probe was closed in February, but USADA announced in June it had evidence Armstrong used banned substances and methods -- and encouraged their use by teammates. The agency also said it had blood tests from 2009 and 2010 that were "fully consistent" with blood doping.

It is hilarious but a sure sign of the power of Nike / Livestrong / Retarded Yellow Braceles that some people believe that Lance Armstrong not only won, but DOMINATED seven different Tours, riding with and/or against known dopers including Landis, Hincapie, Hamilton, Pantani, Ulrich, Vinokurov, Contador, Mayo, Basso, and many more.

Yeah. He wasn't just good, huh? He was fucking superhuman! It wasn't cancer in his testicles. It was a Cycling Mutant gene.

lol.

Whats the evidence against him?

  On 8/24/2012 at 11:53 PM, compson said:

Whats the evidence against him?

ermm .. urine reports ?

Specifically? I thought he always tested negative for doping, he got someone elses urine?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NOK540M7kmk

  On 8/24/2012 at 11:57 PM, compson said:

Specifically? I thought he always tested negative for doping, he got someone elses urine?

 

Maybe there was a cover-up, he was a superstar!

  On 8/25/2012 at 12:00 AM, YO303 said:

  On 8/24/2012 at 11:57 PM, compson said:

Specifically? I thought he always tested negative for doping, he got someone elses urine?

 

 

Maybe there was a cover-up, he was a superstar!

I'm just curious specifically what evidence they have.

compson - We'll never know now. That's the whole point behind Armstrong's emo quitting. His lawsuit failed so he took the easy way out to keep evidence from light of day.

They probably have a huge amount of credible evidence otherwise why would they even charge him?

make doping mandatory and the bell curve will shift to the right a little and everyone will be happy

I've said this here and elsewhere many times... Of course Lance was doping. Of course he was. Anybody who has been watching the Tour for the last 15 years will no doubt be able to spot those that are doping fairly quickly. An easy way to spot a doper is to watch them fucking destroy the competition on any particular day. Remember the days when Lance would like look back at people like Ulrich in the peleton and then turn around and amp up the wattage and just wipe them up on incredibly difficult slopes after weeks racing everyday.

Anytime any rider has been able to do this... basso, ulrich, contador, hamilton, rasmussen, landis etc etc... have eventually tested positive for dope. You just cannot do that normally.

but the thing is though Who give a fuck. Lance was doping along with almost EVERY other fucking rider. Once he goes down that will be 90% of the winners since the late 90s. So, he was the best of all the dopers regardless. If they weren't all doping he would have been the best anyway I don't think anybody would dispute that... he still had the best team, the best strategy, best equipment etc.

anyway he's not admitting guilt but I wouldnt be surprised if this was a way to bow out in the best way possible before he's taken down. The way he's being taken down is possibly illegal as several groups have argued, but it may be the only way for him to get caught so the USDA is doing whatever it can it seems.

  On 8/24/2012 at 11:23 PM, fiznuthian said:

Good for him!

Fuck the haters

Pretty much. It's either this or crushing disappointment.

Not like I ever knew what that yellow bracelet was for. I just wore it because everyone else was. The mark of the beast.

Just another name I've heard a million times but have never cared about.

I agree with everything Franklin wrote ^

the doping issue needs to be taken care of. Either make the tests flawless or make doping legal.

  On 8/25/2012 at 12:50 AM, vamos scorcho said:

Not like I ever knew what that yellow bracelet was for. I just wore it because everyone else was.

I have a Nigerian bank loan waiting for your claim sir, please phone me at your earliest possible convenience so I can make arrangements to wire you the funds.

The guy is an asshole through and through, and it's a testament to (many people's) ability to overlook that fact, in the face of his many cycling victories (and cancer struggle), that they have and would still fail to consider ill of him.

Friends of mine who live in Austin say this douchebag racked up one of the highest water bills in the state last year during the worst drought on record.. why? So all of the gardens at his estate would remain nice and plush. Yeah, that's right, unrelated ad hominem judgement. However, it *is still indicative of "giant douche".

All-steroid olympics vs regular olympics? I know which one I'd be watching.

I knew this from very early on, I saw a televised interview where they interviewer asked him "so, do you dope?" and his eyelids fluttered and he looked down and to the side in such an obvious display of lying I thought it was hilarious. Dude could never play poker.

I don't know why they went after this guy with such a vengeance tbh, it's a real shame - i work in cancer care and he always used to come up as a massive inspiration to the people i was treating. Does he also get a handicap due to the lung fibrosis caused by repeated cycles of BEP chemo?

craziness, my uncle is a marathon runner and maybe a decade ago used to always cite armstrong as a huge inspiration to him as well.

regardless, i like drugs, and drugging myself. you're still one of my heroes, lance

without doping, professional sports would suck

Okay, so if all his major opponents were doping as well then what's the big deal? It would be a level playing field except he beat fucking cancer on top of it all.

I don't idolize the guy or anything, just sayin'.