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Is Lance Armstrong a dope?
According to the World Anti-Doping Code, Armstrong will be stripped of his seven Tour titles, the bronze medal he won at the 2000 Olympics and all other titles, awards and money he won from August 1998 forward.
Armstrong still denies that he has ever cheated the biking world, but his move today, to end his fight against the cheating charges, ostensibly to avoid a public hearing that would trot out a plethora of witnesses who would testify that he is lying about his denials, fairly or unfairly puts a taint on a tremendous life’s achievement.
“There comes a point in every man’s life when he has to say, ‘Enough is enough,’ ” Armstrong said in a statement. “For me, that time is now.”
Armstrong, who turns 41 next month, said he would not contest the charges because it had taken too much of a toll on his family and his work for his cancer foundation, saying he was “finished with this nonsense.”
It also means he will be barred for life from competing, coaching or having any official role with any Olympic sport or other sport that follows the World Anti-Doping Code. “It’s a sad day for all of us who love sport and our athletic heroes,” Travis Tygart, chief executive of the United States Anti-Doping Agency, said. “It’s yet another heartbreaking example of how the win-at-all-costs culture, if left unchecked, will overtake fair, safe and honest competition.”
As in many other high-profile doping cases — including that of the Olympic sprinter Marion Jones and other athletes involved in the sprawling Bay Area Laboratory Co-operative case, known as Balco — Tygart and the antidoping agency were basing their case not on a positive drug test but rather on other supporting evidence. Armstrong seized on that in his statement.
He said again and again that he had never tested positive — though he did test positive at the 1999 Tour for a corticosteroid, for which he produced a backdated doctor’s prescription.
Armstrong also said the case against him was flimsy without that physical evidence.
“Regardless of what Travis Tygart says, there is zero physical evidence to support his outlandish and heinous claims,” Armstrong said. “The only physical evidence here is the hundreds of controls I have passed with flying colors.”
But even without a positive test, the antidoping agency appeared set to move forward with arbitration. It claimed to have more than 10 eyewitnesses who would testify that Armstrong used banned blood transfusions, the blood booster EPO, testosterone and other drugs to win the Tour. Some of Armstrong’s closest teammates, including George Hincapie — one of the most respected American riders — were also expected to testify against him.
The antidoping agency also said it had blood test results of Armstrong’s from 2009 and 2010 that were consistent with doping.
This is not the first time a top cyclist has suffered such a career implosion — it has been common in cycling in recent years, as doping has crippled the sport. Several recent Tour de France champions have been found guilty of doping, including the American rider Floyd Landis and Alberto Contador of Spain. But none of them had the stature of Armstrong.
I choose to believe that Armstrong didn’t cheat until further evidence. In the meantime, though, if this will take those Lycra wearing Lance Armstrong-wannabe biking faggots off the road, then, GUILTY!!!! (And then I blame Sheryl Crow)
Richard654
August 24th, 2012
IMHO… He didn’t do it. He’s fighting a rigged game and under those rules he can’t win.
He’s at a point that what THEY say about him does not define him.
Ride on Lance. Ride on.
dude
August 24th, 2012
Travis Tygart, chief executive of the United States Anti-Doping Agency has no proof. This bozo should go work for obumbles since he is so anti-American and pro-Europe
MM
August 24th, 2012
Don’t these riders have to take daily tests while they’re competing? Would’t those have shown something?
I have no idea why they have such a hard on for Armstrong but I’m on his side. Coming back from a death sentence from cancer of the balls says a lot about what kind of man he is.
Plain Jane
August 24th, 2012
It’s a wonder they didn’t put him in a mental institution for re-education to learn that the officials are always correct.
kvn
August 24th, 2012
US did want France could not, again. US defeated cycling legend Lance Armstrong.
Which of the first losers, AKA: number two, will they go after next? And after they discover all cyclists doped will Obama say “You didn’t win that”?
CrustyB
August 24th, 2012
This is part of why I lost all interest in professional sport years and years ago. You’re either cheating by using PEDs or you’re losing because you’re not.
listingstarboard
August 24th, 2012
Do they drug test the NBA?
dba...vagabond trader
August 24th, 2012
Is this doping czar an Ubama appointee? I’m thinking political payback, anyone hear Lance is conservative? Anyway, sounds like another Gibson take down.
Stanley
August 24th, 2012
http://www.redstate.com/erick/2012/08/24/on-lance-armstrong/
Anonymous
August 24th, 2012
He was a bit dopey when he got involved wit two sheets of TP SherylCrowe.
Moxie Man
August 24th, 2012
Lance: “I’ll give my left nut to keep my titles and medals.”
norman einstein
August 24th, 2012
Rush is talking about this.
Armstrong has PASSED over 500 drug tests…blood, urine, the works, and made himself available to random testing 24/7.
There is NO physical evidence, and that is the USADA’s holy grail.
How can somebody defeat such trumped-up charges, when they won’t respect their OWN criteria?
Nutjob
August 24th, 2012
This is sad.
Someone definately has a woodie for him, eithers theres proof or theres not.
Just 1 more phase of Obamas new america, you do something for america that makes people proud of america …..we will destroy you.
Nutjob
August 24th, 2012
Maybe he should say he’s gay and they’ll leave him alone.
Because we all know you can’t prosecute a gay man when he accuses you of being a bigot and homophoebic.
Then while he’s at it denounce america and its foreign policy.
I’ll bet he’d be up for the congressional medal of honor then.
dba...vagabond trader
August 24th, 2012
Meanwhile, Jon Corzine goes a-bundling in the morning.
Bob M.
August 24th, 2012
It’s just Obama at work… RE-distributing the WHITE guy’s awards…
Bob M.
August 24th, 2012
WHY do you think the Rooney family LOVES O’Bama – because he’s Irish?!?!
It’s because they don’t want to LOSE the six Lombardi trophies the Steelers have ALREADY won!
I Luv Bacon
August 24th, 2012
The other Riders lining up to testify can suck his nut.
I always see those bike fancies stopped on the side of the road pretending to adjust their chains in order to present themselves to the other pedal-packers.
Billy Fuster
August 24th, 2012
This might turn him into a conservative.
reddecaesari
August 24th, 2012
another government funded agency with cushy appointments and more workers on the taxpayer dime.
founded in 2000 by who?
and a forced arbitration clause …
half of government needs to be shut down.
Corona
August 24th, 2012
“Lycra wearing Lance Armstrong-wannabe biking faggots off the road”
Amen.
Noodengr
August 24th, 2012
I feel bad for him. Someone had it out for him that had more money and lawyers and forced him to cave. I hope public opinion sides with Lance and
tells the doping agency where to shove it.
super toe
August 24th, 2012
I hate to see him give in to this, but there comes a point when enough is enough. What proof does the USADA have?
Travis Tygart is the CEO of the “Non Profit” USADA and has a raging hard on for Armstrong since he was appointed in 2007. I couldn’t find his political affiliation, but I wouldn’t be surprised if he has attachments to Lib causes.
Aunt Liz
August 24th, 2012
The moral of the story is: Be good – but don’t be too good. God forbid someone actually excel.
norman einstein
August 24th, 2012
@Aunt Liz, exactly! He was greedy.
I mean…at some point, don’t you have ENOUGH medals?
Hawaiian
August 24th, 2012
Tygart’s Wikipedia page says that at USADA he previously served as “Senior Managing Director and General Douche.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Travis_Tygart
Bad Brad
August 24th, 2012
Greedy? It’s competition. If you are not a little greedy I’m not sure you are competitive enough to be in a sport. Especially at that level. Fighter pilots are greedy too.
My son in laws sister rides for Team USA. Says Lance is a total ass, but she also says they all push the blood doping thing to the limit, and most of the team is jealous as hell of Armstrong’s record. I think the IOC needs to get their stuff together.
Aunt Liz
August 24th, 2012
@Norman Einstein – Yes! We must spread the medals around!
fluffythewondercat
August 24th, 2012
Anytime an athlete says “I’ve never failed a drug test” the correct response is “So what?”
Patrick Arnold is perhaps the best known renegade chemist formulating new and forgotten steroids, but there are others. They create or reconstruct steroids no one tests for. THAT’S THE WHOLE POINT.
There are no-one-knows-how-many drugs that have been created by Big Pharma but were never produced because there wasn’t enough of a commercial opportunity. Some of the steroids supplied to Victor Conte (BALCO) by Patrick Arnold were in that category. One of them was “The Clear” (Tetrahydrogestrinone or THG), an undetectable steroid.
The only reason USADA found out about THG is that a pissed-off track coach handed over a syringe of it. Based on that, a test for THG was developed.
But there are other designer steroids as yet undiscovered — that’s a near certainty.
And there’s said to be a mountain of evidence (not including drug tests) implicating Lance Armstrong. It might include things like doping calendars or as in the case of THG, a syringe full of a new steroid that had Lance’s fingerprints on it.
Unneutral
August 24th, 2012
If Lance has been doping we’ve been duped.
Frosteetoes
August 24th, 2012
Hey, there was an ad on the right column of Lance Armstrong for natural energy packs from FRS. So I clicked it. Now I’m waiting for the samples to get mailed to me.
Thanks Lance!
F.D.R. in Hell
August 24th, 2012
Guilty or innocent, Paterno is down here laughing his pelvis off.
ruble
August 24th, 2012
Typical political witch hunt perpetuated by an angry mob who does not have the skills that Armstong does. If he would have redistributed his wins this would have never happened. Clearly, Armstrong is guilty. Hang the bastard.
Roscoe P. Soultrane
August 24th, 2012
Meh, cycling is as crooked as horse racing and boxing. They’re *all* doped.
LadyGun12
August 24th, 2012
If they can’t PROVE anything, they need to back off. From what I’ve heard, Lance is not always the nicest person in the world. These “witnesses” probably got butt-hurt by something Lance said to them.
Absolute muddjuice
August 24th, 2012
Let’s say it’s all true. He is big cheater and he cheated his way to all those races…..
…..uhhhhhh…….
Why exactly is this the business of the US Federal government? How is this an issue for the Feds? What law has been violated?
It’s a sport. If the head person in the sport wants to investigate him, so be it. But why the Feds? Go investigate a federal crime there fellas…….
Ricky
August 24th, 2012
I feel Lance is innocent, I think the USADA should be ashamed of themselves. And as for me..I’m boycotting everything French.. they can take their Eiffel tower and stick it up their arse!
bernie bouck
August 25th, 2012
That’s what he gets for getting involved with the Frogs , anyway !