Armstrong Gives Up Defending Accusations: Stripped Of Titles

[FirefightnRick]

The witch hunt finally ends.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/24/sports/cycling/lance-armstrong-ends-fight-against-doping-charges-losing-his-7-tour-de-france-titles.html?pagewanted=all

..."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 toll on his family and his work for his cancer foundation, saying he was “finished with this nonsense...."

He passed over 500 tests that was never going to be good enough. Cant blame him for throwing up his hands over this

Rick

Edited August 24, 2012 by FirefightnRick

[Harry]

Sad day. Another great American icon that will be tarnished forever.

[foutsrouts]

Very sad. I remember when the guy was kicking triathlon butt on much older men when he was a young teenager living in Plano. It does smell a bit like a witch hunt, but I've heard mixed stories from a couple of people who knew him in his younger years. Sad, because he is and was a great athlete.

[Green Mean]

Sad day. Another great American icon that will be tarnished forever.

I think he was already pretty tarnished in the public perception. If he really didn't take those things then he would have fought til the day he died because that is/was practically his whole legacy. It was a really great story too but there is no doubt that cycling is probably the dirtiest sport of all when it comes to this stuff.

[oldguystudent]

The USADA had shown amazing, uncompromising perseverance over a period of years, in the face of little to no evidence save the testimony of others who plea bargained. They refused to rest until successfully obliterating the legacy of their target.

I can think of a few individuals/entities I'd like an organization like that to take a little gander at next.

[CMJ]

Do I think he probably cheated? Yes.

It still saddens me greatly that this had to go down. I wonder who his titles will go to now. Like over half the riders in some of those Tours have been declared dirty at this point.

Edited August 24, 2012 by CMJ

[Green P1]

The USADA has no authority to strip him of his titles. The Tour stripping him would open up barrel of worms like no other... He'll keep is titles and fade away into the background of sports.

[Censored by Laurie]

The USADA "stripped" Lance of his titles...not the ICA...not the Tour. As Craig Miller put it this morning, the USADA stripping Lance of his titles holds about as much weight as The Musers stripping Barry Bonds of his home run records.

Public perception of Lance will not change...his supporters will still support him and see the USADA accusations for what they are, a witch hunt...his detractors will hold the same opinion of him that they held after his first Tour win.

[UNT90]

Do I think he probably cheated? Yes.

It still saddens me greatly that this had to go down. I wonder who his titles will go to now. Like over half the riders in some of Tours have been declared dirty at this point.

Cycling is a dirty, dirty, dirty sport. The fact that Lance tested clean over 500 times means that he was definitely doping much less than others and still kicking their butts.

This was a witch hunt to crucify Armstrong. He doesn't lose his Tour de France titles. The USADA can't take those titles from him. This reaks of publicity pandering by the USADA. Why would you go after someone who is not actively competing in the sport you govern, hasn't actively competed for years, and passed over 500 drug tests while competing?

Publicity is the answer. They got what they wanted. Whether Armstrong is guilty of this or not, make no mistake, that isn't the reason the USADA went after him so hard. Their only evidence is testimony from a bunch of guys who HAVE been caught cheating.

All kinds of agendas involved in this.

[KRAM1]

Very sad. I remember when the guy was kicking triathlon butt on much older men when he was a young teenager living in Plano. It does smell a bit like a witch hunt, but I've heard mixed stories from a couple of people who knew him in his younger years. Sad, because he is and was a great athlete.

Really? I wonder what it cost to keep defending himself over and over again? Seems he has been "cleared" many times, yet the same bozos, spending other people's money, keep after it...so, I wonder if his "enough is enough" is just out of frustration and a realization that these folks, who don't have to spend their own money chasing after this thing, would just keep on until he was dead broke???

I have no clue if he did or didn't, but he sure has passed a bunch of tests along the way. Bozos who spend other people's money and have a personal vendetta are pretty tough to outspend! Seems to me anyway...and in a sport where all but everyone used these drugs at one time or another this does seem more like a vendetta than anything else. This sport lost credibility for being "drug free" many many years ago.....much like MLB these days.

[oldguystudent]

The only thing I can think of is that he must have REALLY offended some people along the line. Is he not a very nice guy?

[UNT90]

The USADA had shown amazing, uncompromising perseverance over a period of years, in the face of little to no evidence save the testimony of others who plea bargained. They refused to rest until successfully obliterating the legacy of their target.

I can think of a few individuals/entities I'd like an organization like that to take a little gander at next.

Like... YOU!!

[outoftown]

Personally I have a lot more sympathy for doping offenders who admitt their wrong doing and then atone for it... i can wish marion Jones luck now that she did/does that .. i cannot find any sympathy within me for Lance Armstrong of whom I am totally convinced is guilty, and have been convinced since before he won his 3rd tour title.

When it comes to those 500 tests he passed: all that says about him, is something about the lengths to which he went in order not to get caught. This does not enhance my respect for him, but diminishes it. Trying harder/being more capable to cheat than the others does in no way deserve respect!

If you believe that Armonstrong was not doped, then you also believe in aliens, for all his main opponents which he obliterated for years, have all been proven doped... almost all of his former team mates have been proven doped. His efforts were on average faster than those of the best cyclists with the newest materials of the last years - which were still also only possible with doping. There is absolutely no doubt in my mind that within the next 5 years one of the newly developped tests, would have come up positive on an old probe. I salute USADA for their perseverence. It is important to me that athletes know that lying now, will eventually be found out, and if it is 10 years later. Sadly not all countries have that good doping agencies and thus we will probably never be able to substantiate behavior like this in some other sports like athletics (Jamaika for one has NO doping agency at all)

Rant over

Edited August 24, 2012 by outoftown

[forevereagle]

Well, whether you believe that he is guilty or not, you have to admit that the man was a good test taker.

[oldguystudent]

Like... YOU!!

Having seen me at my tailgating finest, I really doubt you would learn anything new. I do, however, hold my recreational pursuits close to the vest when it comes to current and potential employers.

[UNT90]

Personally I have a lot more sympathy for doping offenders who admitt their wrong doing and then atone for it... i can wish marion Jones luck now that she did/does that .. i cannot find any sympathy within me for Lance Armstrong of whom I am totally convinced is guilty, and have been convinced since before he won his 3rd tour title.

When it comes to those 500 tests he passed: all that says about him, is something about the lengths to which he went in order not to get caught. This does not enhance my respect for him, but diminishes it. Trying harder/being more capable to cheat than the others does in no way deserve respect!

If you believe that Armonstrong was not doped, then you also believe in aliens, for all his main opponents which he obliterated for years, have all been proven doped... almost all of his former team mates have been proven doped. His efforts were on average faster than those of the best cyclists with the newest materials of the last years - which were still also only possible with doping. There is absolutely no doubt in my mind that within the next 5 years one of the newly developped tests, would have come up positive on an old probe. I salute USADA for their perseverence. It is important to me that athletes know that lying now, will eventually be found out, and if it is 10 years later. Sadly not all countries have that good doping agencies and thus we will probably never be able to substantiate behavior like this in some other sports like athletics (Jamaika for one has NO doping agency at all)

Rant over

I understand your feelings.

I have a question. If everyone is doping, and one guy is tested much more than everyone else, yet tests clean every time (even though the French were clearly out to get him any way they could because they hated that the American kept winning their race year after year), and then, almost 10 years after his retirement, an investigation starts because of what admitted cheaters say and nothing else, do you really think the USADA has no agenda?

I would rather they be attempting to catch competitors in the sport NOW.

Isn't that what they are suppose to do?

[MeanGreenTexan]

Personally I have a lot more sympathy for doping offenders who admitt their wrong doing and then atone for it... i can wish marion Jones luck now that she did/does that .. i cannot find any sympathy within me for Lance Armstrong of whom I am totally convinced is guilty, and have been convinced since before he won his 3rd tour title.

When it comes to those 500 tests he passed: all that says about him, is something about the lengths to which he went in order not to get caught. This does not enhance my respect for him, but diminishes it. Trying harder/being more capable to cheat than the others does in no way deserve respect!

If you believe that Armonstrong was not doped, then you also believe in aliens, for all his main opponents which he obliterated for years, have all been proven doped... almost all of his former team mates have been proven doped. His efforts were on average faster than those of the best cyclists with the newest materials of the last years - which were still also only possible with doping. There is absolutely no doubt in my mind that within the next 5 years one of the newly developped tests, would have come up positive on an old probe. I salute USADA for their perseverence. It is important to me that athletes know that lying now, will eventually be found out, and if it is 10 years later. Sadly not all countries have that good doping agencies and thus we will probably never be able to substantiate behavior like this in some other sports like athletics (Jamaika for one has NO doping agency at all)

Rant over

By this logic, we must conclude that Hank Aaron/Willie Mays/et al. were doping... Hang on, there's an alien at my door.

[UNT90]

By this logic, we must conclude that Hank Aaron/Willie Mays/et al. were doping... Hang on, there's an alien at my door.

Not to mention that steroid freak Roger Maris.

[Censored by Laurie]

Personally I have a lot more sympathy for doping offenders who admitt their wrong doing and then atone for it... i can wish marion Jones luck now that she did/does that .. i cannot find any sympathy within me for Lance Armstrong of whom I am totally convinced is guilty, and have been convinced since before he won his 3rd tour title.

When it comes to those 500 tests he passed: all that says about him, is something about the lengths to which he went in order not to get caught. This does not enhance my respect for him, but diminishes it. Trying harder/being more capable to cheat than the others does in no way deserve respect!

If you believe that Armonstrong was not doped, then you also believe in aliens, for all his main opponents which he obliterated for years, have all been proven doped... almost all of his former team mates have been proven doped. His efforts were on average faster than those of the best cyclists with the newest materials of the last years - which were still also only possible with doping. There is absolutely no doubt in my mind that within the next 5 years one of the newly developped tests, would have come up positive on an old probe. I salute USADA for their perseverence. It is important to me that athletes know that lying now, will eventually be found out, and if it is 10 years later. Sadly not all countries have that good doping agencies and thus we will probably never be able to substantiate behavior like this in some other sports like athletics (Jamaika for one has NO doping agency at all)

Rant over

So then do you just feel that every elite athlete is in some way artificially enhanced? What a horribly pessimistic and dis-illusioned outlook you have on life...I feel quite sorry for you. In you mind, apparently, Usain Bolt is a doper because Jamaica doesn't follow him around, go through his trash and make him pee in a cup on his way to his morning coffee, a dinner date or 2 minutes after someone made him pee in a cup...all the tests done by the IOC and whatever track and field's governing body may be aren't enough, right? Let's just ignore that a 6'5" dude has quick twitch muscles normally not seen in someone his size.

Lance Armstrong has for the past decade basically had to make sure he's well-hydrated 24/7 in case some dude insisted he join him in the nearest men's room stall to fill up a cup. And every time it's come up clean. Some how to you that means he's just cheating better...not that he might just have a freak's lung capacity and, oh...the motivation of realizing that fighting through cancer and having a ball lopped off is a whole hell of a lot tougher than winning a stupid bike race? You'd believe the testimony of those already caught or those who don't want their names tarnished the same way Lance's has over science? Sad, man. You probably shouldn't even watch sports any more.

[UNT90]

So then do you just feel that every elite athlete is in some way artificially enhanced? What a horribly pessimistic and dis-illusioned outlook you have on life...I feel quite sorry for you. In you mind, apparently, Usain Bolt is a doper because Jamaica doesn't follow him around, go through his trash and make him pee in a cup on his way to his morning coffee, a dinner date or 2 minutes after someone made him pee in a cup...all the tests done by the IOC and whatever track and field's governing body may be aren't enough, right? Let's just ignore that a 6'5" dude has quick twitch muscles normally not seen in someone his size.

Lance Armstrong has for the past decade basically had to make sure he's well-hydrated 24/7 in case some dude insisted he join him in the nearest men's room stall to fill up a cup. And every time it's come up clean. Some how to you that means he's just cheating better...not that he might just have a freak's lung capacity and, oh...the motivation of realizing that fighting through cancer and having a ball lopped off is a whole hell of a lot tougher than winning a stupid bike race? You'd believe the testimony of those already caught or those who don't want their names tarnished the same way Lance's has over science? Sad, man. You probably shouldn't even watch sports any more.

Anyone who has ever rode a bike over distance knows that so much of it is the mental willpower to keep going. Could it be that Lance had a freak lung capacity, a freak ATP output, coupled with a freak psychological advantage, knowing that if he could beat what was believed to be terminal testicular cancer (yes, the medical experts' opinion, who, surprise, were WRONG), he could endure a little pain on the bike.

Maybe Lance doped, maybe he didn't, but the fact is, there isn't one shread of credible evidence to prove that he did. And an investigation that occurred 10 years after the fact.

I have no respect for the USADA.

Edited August 24, 2012 by UNT90

[UNTstormchaser]

But aliens are real.

[GreenMachine]

So then do you just feel that every elite athlete is in some way artificially enhanced? What a horribly pessimistic and dis-illusioned outlook you have on life...I feel quite sorry for you. In you mind, apparently, Usain Bolt is a doper because Jamaica doesn't follow him around, go through his trash and make him pee in a cup on his way to his morning coffee, a dinner date or 2 minutes after someone made him pee in a cup...all the tests done by the IOC and whatever track and field's governing body may be aren't enough, right? Let's just ignore that a 6'5" dude has quick twitch muscles normally not seen in someone his size.

Lance Armstrong has for the past decade basically had to make sure he's well-hydrated 24/7 in case some dude insisted he join him in the nearest men's room stall to fill up a cup. And every time it's come up clean. Some how to you that means he's just cheating better...not that he might just have a freak's lung capacity and, oh...the motivation of realizing that fighting through cancer and having a ball lopped off is a whole hell of a lot tougher than winning a stupid bike race? You'd believe the testimony of those already caught or those who don't want their names tarnished the same way Lance's has over science? Sad, man. You probably shouldn't even watch sports any more.

Crap, as much as this pains me,(it will probably never happen again) I have to give you a +1.

[meanJewGreen]

It's a witch hunt. Plain and simple. You can say that his stopping to fight these charges is an admission of guilt, but with everything he's done, how many tests he's had to undergo, I'd be tired of it too. He's got a wife and five kids and probably doesnt want to spend his entire life peeing in a cup at every function he goes to.

He had a 32-34 resting heart rate and a 201 bpm. That's unheard of. He trained crazy hard, and deserved it. Yeah he's a douche, but he worked his ass off- no different than Bolt, Jordan, or other legendary athletes.

By the way, lets remember who is on this witch hunt- the IOC and USADA, two of the most corrupt international organizations around. Other than the UN.

Edited August 24, 2012 by meanJewGreen

[greenminer]

Lance Armstrong has a VO2Max nearly twice the average man's. The top skyrunners in the world will have 85 - 90ish VO2Ms.

USADA was constantly rehashing allegations that were over 15 years old, well outside their own 8 year limit. They were on a mission to taint Armstrong, stepping beyond their own policies to do so.

Lance was a very gifted athlete. USADA went over the line to satisfy someone's vendetta.

EDIT: cool list @ http://www.topendsports.com/testing/records/vo2max.htm

I read about Matt last week. His accomplishments as a skyrunner are awesome.

Edited August 24, 2012 by greenminer

[VideoEagle]

Once Lance lost his real court battle and was force to accept USADA arbitration, he could never win and he knew it. He had to prove a negative and the USADA could trot out people with convictions for perjury to "prove" their case. His fighting a kangaroo court would give the USADA legitimacy it never had. It's sad, but he did the best thing in not fighting against an organization based on fraud.