[Romo]

Quote

Lance Armstrong's status as an icon of sport is in tatters after he was stripped of his seven Tour de France victories amid allegations he was a systematic doping cheat.

At the end of cycling’s darkest of many drug-tainted days, the American who beat cancer was punished after deciding to stop fighting the claims.

The United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) issued a statement which laid out a litany of charges against the 40-year-old, banned him from cycling for life and erased him from every race in which he had competed since 1998.

Friday's events bring an ignominious end to one of the greatest sporting fairytales ever told. He was the Texan who was given a less than 40 per cent chance of living after testicular cancer spread to his lungs, abdomen and brain.

But three years later in 1999, after chemotherapy, he won his first Tour de France at the age of 28. His reputation was further enhanced by his charity work with the Lance Armstrong Foundation, which raised £250million through the sale of yellow Livestrong bracelets.

For a decade he was strident and litigious in protecting himself from innuendo that suggested his success — which won him a £80m fortune — was built on drug taking.

But in Friday’s final chain of events, knowing all the evidence USADA had and having lost a lawsuit on Monday challenging the body’s jurisdiction, he effectively turned the needle of suspicion upon himself: he said he would not contest the charges brought by USADA.

It was a course of action that was interpreted by all but Armstrong’s most ardent supporters as evidence of guilt.

It saved him from the drawn-out embarrassment of a public hearing. It also allowed him to maintain his innocence even as he publicly quit the fight.

USADA’s statement read: ‘The anti-doping rule violations for which Mr Armstrong is being sanctioned are:

1) Use and/or attempted use of prohibited substances and/or methods including EPO, blood transfusions, testosterone, corticosteroids and masking agents.

2) Possession of prohibited substances and/or methods including EPO, blood transfusions and related equipment (such as needles, blood bags, storage containers and other transfusion equipment and blood parameters measuring devices), testosterone, corticosteroids and masking agents.

3) Trafficking of EPO, tes-tosterone, and corticosteroids.

4) Administration and/or attempted administration to others of EPO, testosterone, and cortisone.

5) Assisting, encouraging, aiding, abetting, covering up and other complicity involving one or more anti-doping rule violations and/or attempted anti-doping rule violations.’

Armstrong, echoing his typically defensive tone of the last few years, said in an 871-word statement: ‘If I thought for one moment that by participating in USADA’s process, I could confront these allegations in a fair setting and — once and for all — put these charges to rest, I would jump at the chance.

‘But I refuse to participate in a process that is so one-sided and unfair. Regardless of what (USADA chief executive) Travis Tygart says, there is zero physical evidence to support his outlandish and heinous claims. The only physical evidence here is the hundreds of controls I have passed with flying colours. I made myself available around the clock and around the world. In competition. Out of competition. Blood. Urine. Whatever they asked for I provided. What is the point of all this testing if, in the end, USADA will not stand by it?’ He added: ‘There comes a point in every man’s life when he has to say, “Enough is enough”. For me, that time is now.

‘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 (USADA chief executive) Travis Tygart’s 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.’

Read more: http://www.dailymail...l#ixzz24VX5XY4G

This is what he has been accused of taking.

[housemd]

It's sad to see such a great athlete end his career like this..He was a role model to many youngsters who wanted to start cycling and now his name will be connected to PEDs,not great achievements..

[oochymp]

honestly, I'm still inclined to believe him, first of all, you should read his statement in full: http://lancearmstron...-august-23-2012

From that, I can understand simply getting fed up with the allegations and this may have been the only way to get rid of them. As for the specific allegations, he never showed a spike in performance which means he either didn't dope or he was doping during his entire career and the sheer number of drug tests he passed makes me inclined to believe the former. As far as I'm concerned, he's still a 7 time Tour de France champion.

[Tridentdawgpound]

He was still the first man on the Moon and no one will ever take that from him.

[Ngata_Chance]

I call bullshit. There is no way a guy can pass as many tests as he has and under scrutiny for as long as he has during this investigation and not have found ANYTHING. So much for innocent until proven guilty. Now it is pester teh fuck out of until you get sick of not having a life. I hope that Mr. Tagyrt gets testicular cancer in a huge bout of irony.

[Vin]

Barry Bonds didn't fail a test either.

As dirty as cycling is, I don't think you can expect Lance to be the lone white knight that did everything legitimately and had great success in doing so. I also don't buy the reasoning of, "Well, everyone cheats, and even if Lance took something, he still dominated everyone."

[BwareDWare94]

So with no legitimate proof they're stripping him of all of his titles? Wow. Just wow.

[oochymp]

Quote

Lance Armstrong charity sees $78K
Updated: August 25, 2012, 10:41 AM ET By Darren Rovell | ESPN

If the donations to the Lance Armstrong Foundation are to tail off, it certainly didn't happen the day after Armstrong decided to stop fighting charges that he used performance-enhancing drugs during his cycling career.

The Livestrong foundation's CEO, Doug Ulman, told ESPN on Friday night that unsolicited donations were up almost 25 times as compared to Thursday.

Ulman said $3,200 came in Thursday to the organization's website, which was in the range of what it typically receives. As of 4:30 p.m. ET on Friday, Ulman noted $78,000 in donations.

The number of people donating increased as well. On Thursday, the foundation had 45 people donating through the website. On Friday, hours after the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency said it had enough information to strip Armstrong of his seven Tour de France titles, 411 people felt compelled to donate.

Merchandise sales were up almost threefold, from $4,000 in gear sold on Thursday to $11,000 sold on Friday.

"We've heard from our strongest supporters," Ulman said. "And while they are frustrated with the outcome, they are relieved to put this behind them and get back to business."

Every sponsor of Armstrong or the Foundation chose to publicly stand by them Friday. Nike, Anheuser-Busch, Oakley, Johnson Health Tech, Sporting KC, FRS, Honey Stinger and American Century Investments all issued statements of support.

In the past 15 years, the Lance Armstrong Foundation has raised more than $470 million, more than any athlete charity in history.

Via ESPN

the people have spoken

[blotsfan]

I'm with vin. Cycling is one of those sports where probably literally everyone cheats so it's still impressive what he did.

[Milla4Prez63]

Like someone else said, he is still a 7x time champ as far as I'm concerned.

[Bucman]

Does this mean all this live strong crap will go on sale now?

[Thanatos19]

Just fyi, the title of this article is misleading. The USADA has no authority whatsoever to strip Lance of his titles, nor do they have the authority to ban him, as a matter of fact, from an overseas event. (Not that that matters considering he is a retired cyclist.) That will come if and when the UCI agrees with their so-called evidence, which I really don't think will happen.

The USADA has been involved in a witch hunt against Lance for the past decade. A federal investigation found no evidence to suggest he had been doping, as well as questioning the motives of the USADA, and he has never failed any of the 200+ drug tests he took, (obviously this does not mean he is innocent, necessarily, but there is no evidence to the contrary).

Not only that, but a court that has found all but one of 60 athletes to try their case guilty as charged doesn't seem to be a fair court. One person in particular they said had so little of a certain drug in their system that it was impossible for it to be performance-enhancing, and was extremely likely that it was ingested by accident. So their sentence? To uphold his two-year ban. Why? Because there was "no reason to exonerate him."

All their evidence against Lance is based on hearsay. That should not be reason to strip his titles, and hopefully the UCI will see that.

This post has been edited by Thanatos19: 27 August 2012 - 02:16 PM

[BLUE]

Quote

GENEVA -- Forget the seven Tour de France victories. Forget the yellow jersey celebrations on the Champs Elysees. Forget the name that dominated the sport of cycling for so many years.

As far as cycling's governing body is concerned, Lance Armstrong is out of the record books.

Once considered the greatest rider in Tour history, the American was cast out Monday by his sport, formally stripped of his seven titles and banned for life for his involvement in what U.S. sports authorities describe as a massive doping program that tainted all of his greatest triumphs.

"Lance Armstrong has no place in cycling, and he deserves to be forgotten in cycling," said Pat McQuaid, president of the International Cycling Union. "This is a landmark day for cycling."

McQuaid announced that his group, known as UCI, accepted sanctions imposed by the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency and would not appeal them to the Court of Arbitration for Sport. McQuaid said he was "sickened" by some of the evidence detailed by USADA in its 200-page report and hundreds of pages of supporting testimony and documents.

The condemnation by cycling's most senior official confirmed Armstrong's pariah status, after the UCI had backed Armstrong at times in trying to seize the doping investigation from USADA. McQuaid said the UCI endorsed a lifelong ban for Armstrong after almost two weeks studying the American agency's evidence, and will meet Friday to discuss going after his 2000 Olympic bronze medal.

Tour de France director Christian Prudhomme said he no longer considers Armstrong to be a champion from 1999 to 2005 and wants him to pay back his prize money.

"We wish that there is no winner for this period," he said in Paris. "For us, very clearly, the titles should remain blank. Effectively, we wish for these years to remain without winners."

Armstrong's representatives had no immediate comment, but the rider was defiant in August as he chose not to fight USADA in one of the agency's arbitration hearings. He argued the process was rigged against him.

Read more: ESPN.com

[Favre4Ever]

What a joke this all is.. I hear they want him to return millions in prize money as well. Good luck with that one. He hasn't won a Tour in almost a decade... Why they feel they needed to go after Lance instead of actually cleaning up their sport is a mystery to me. They just wanted to reel in a big fish.

Congrats, I suppose.

[Ngata_Chance]

All this is for naught because they can whine and moan about how he is such a bad person and blah blah blah, but the fact is ask anyone who the greatest cyclist ever is and they will say Lance Armstrong.

I also find it funny how they want to say these titles should be vacant and so on but they cant take away perception.

And the REALLY funny part is that a sport as boring as cycling finally found an icon and now they want to shun him so they can drift back into irrelevance again.....


FUCKING LOSERS LOL.

[oochymp]

so I think we now have a decade in which nobody has actually won the Tour de France, awesome

[BLUE]

Quote

AUSTIN, Texas -- Lance Armstrong plans to admit to doping throughout his career during an upcoming interview with Oprah Winfrey, USA Today reported late Friday.

The interview, scheduled to be taped Monday and broadcast Thursday night on the Oprah Winfrey Network, will be conducted at Armstrong's home in Austin.

Citing an anonymous source, USA Today reported that the disgraced cyclist plans to admit to using performance-enhancing drugs but likely will not get into details of the allegations outlined in a 2012 report by the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency that led to Armstrong being stripped of his seven Tour de France titles and banned for life from the sport.

His representatives declined comment late Friday, including attorney Tim Herman, but Armstrong sent a text to The Associated Press early Saturday morning saying: "I told her (Winfrey) to go wherever she wants and I'll answer the questions directly, honestly, candidly. That's all I can say."

The New York Times first reported last week that Armstrong was considering making a confession. On Saturday morning, The Associated Press reported Armstrong would make a limited confession and offer an apology during the interview, citing a person with knowledge of the situation.

Armstrong, 41, who vehemently denied doping for years, has not spoken publicly about the USADA report that cast him as the leader of a sophisticated and brazen doping program on his U.S. Postal Service teams that included use of steroids, blood boosters and illegal blood transfusions.

Winfrey's network announced Tuesday that Armstrong agreed to a "no holds barred" interview with her.

A confession to Winfrey would come at a time when some of Armstrong's legal troubles appear to be clearing up.

Any potential perjury charges stemming from his sworn testimony denying doping in a 2005 arbitration fight with a Dallas promotions company over a contract bonus worth $7.5 million have passed the statute of limitations.

Armstrong faces a whistle-blower lawsuit filed by former teammate Floyd Landis accusing him of defrauding the U.S. Postal Service, but the U.S. Department of Justice has yet to announce whether it will join the case. The British newspaper The Sunday Times is suing Armstrong to recover about $500,000 it paid him to settle a libel lawsuit.

Armstrong lost most of his personal sponsorship -- worth tens of millions of dollars -- after USADA issued its report, and he left the board of the Livestrong cancer-fighting charity he founded in 1997. He is said to still be worth an estimated $100 million.

Livestrong might be one reason to issue an apology or make a confession. The charity supports cancer patients and still faces an image problem because of its association with its famous founder.

The New York Times reported Armstrong might make a confession in an attempt to return to competition in elite triathlon or running events, but World Anti-Doping Code rules state his lifetime ban cannot be reduced to fewer than eight years. WADA and U.S. Anti-Doping officials could agree to reduce the ban further depending on what new information Armstrong provides and his level of cooperation.

Armstrong met with USADA officials recently to explore a "pathway to redemption," according to a report by "60 Minutes Sports" aired Wednesday on Showtime.

Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.

Source: ESPN.com

This post has been edited by BLUE: 12 January 2013 - 05:41 PM

[BenJarvus Green-Ellis]

Are people still defending this douchebag?

Total cheater and liar.

[JetsFan4Life]

I'm still not giving a fuck because it's cycling.

[Rain Man]

Lance Armstrong isn't going to "come clean" in the manor people expect. You really think that after 5 - 10 years of denial he's going to come out and say "I cheated"? No way. And if he does, it will be on the feet of all his sponsors and investors. Not himself. He'll say they made him do it. He's not going to throw himself under the bus here. You all expect apologies and remorse, Lance Armstrong is NOT that guy.

So he cheated, so what? You think no one else was cheating? This is the same deal as the MLB is going through. I bet you more than 50% of the guys are cheating just like Armstrong. He's a champion, not an evil force. Get over it.