Lance Armstrong stripped of Tour de France titles for doping

BBC Sport wrote:Lance Armstrong has been stripped of his seven Tour de France titles and given a lifetime ban by the United States Anti-Doping Agency.
USADA decided he used performance-enhancing drugs to achieve his success.
Armstrong, who strongly denies doping, has decided not to contest the charges.
Cycling's world governing body, the International Cycling Union (UCI), is yet to make a statement whether they intend to follow USADA in expunging Armstrong's title wins.
USADA said Armstrong's decision not to take the charges against him to arbitration triggers the lifetime ineligibility and erased his results from 1 August 1998.
Armstrong retired from cycling in 2005 but returned to the sport between 2009 and 2012 as part of the Astana and then RadioShack teams.
USADA alleges he used banned substances, including the blood-booster erythropoietin (EPO), steroid and blood transfusions, as far back as 1996.
On Monday, Armstrong failed in his attempt to block the charges in a US federal court. He claimed USADA was acting beyond its remit and had offered "corrupt inducements" to other riders to testify against him.
Armstrong had been given until 06:00 GMT on Friday to decide whether to continue fighting USADA's charges. The agency has said that 10 of Armstrong's former team-mates are prepared to testify against him.
"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," Armstrong added.
In a statement USADA claimed it had clear evidence that Armstrong had taken performance-enhancing drugs.
"The evidence against Lance Armstrong arose from disclosures made to USADA by more than a dozen witnesses who agreed to testify and provide evidence about their first-hand experience and/or knowledge of the doping activity of those involved in the USPS conspiracy as well as analytical data," the statement read.
"As part of the investigation Mr Armstrong was invited to meet with USADA and be truthful about his time on the USPS team but he refused. "
Armstrong, who survived testicular cancer prior to his record-breaking Tour wins, says he will be focusing on the work with his cancer charity.

Meep wrote::( I feel let down by this guy, he was an inspirational figure but now everything is tainted. What's worse is he probably feels like gooseberry fool himself now.

Dual wrote:Hah, now I've got the same amount of Tour de France titles as Lance Armstrong.

melatonin wrote:

Dual wrote:Hah, now I've got the same amount of Tour de France titles as Lance Armstrong.

I don't.

Moggy wrote:

Meep wrote::( I feel let down by this guy, he was an inspirational figure but now everything is tainted. What's worse is he probably feels like gooseberry fool himself now.

He has never failed a drug test and still denys the allegations.

Jonathan86 wrote:

Moggy wrote:

Meep wrote::( I feel let down by this guy, he was an inspirational figure but now everything is tainted. What's worse is he probably feels like gooseberry fool himself now.

He has never failed a drug test and still denys the allegations.

False. Look it up

Jonathan86 wrote:

Moggy wrote:

Meep wrote::( I feel let down by this guy, he was an inspirational figure but now everything is tainted. What's worse is he probably feels like gooseberry fool himself now.

He has never failed a drug test and still denys the allegations.

False. Look it up

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.

Dual wrote:

melatonin wrote:

Dual wrote:Hah, now I've got the same amount of Tour de France titles as Lance Armstrong.

I don't.

Did you understand my joke?