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 Lance Armstrong gives up fight against USADA Lance Armstrong posted:I have been dealing with claims that I cheated and had an unfair advantage in winning my seven Tours since 1999. 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. By giving up the fight of the charges, Lance Armstrong has put his legacy in question in the minds of fans. He will be stripped of all of his Tour de France titles, and is also likely banned for life from the sport of cycling. 
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| # ? Aug 24, 2012 02:34 |
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| # ? May 25, 2013 04:55 |
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I'm not surprised that he's going to have his titles stripped. I'm more surprised that he didn't try and put up a fight, since it certainly seemed like where that was headed.
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| # ? Aug 24, 2012 02:38 |
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FlamingLiberal posted:I'm not surprised that he's going to have his titles stripped. I'm more surprised that he didn't try and put up a fight, since it certainly seemed like where that was headed. to be fair, he's been putting up a fight for like 7 years now. Every time he beats one, someone starts another one.
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| # ? Aug 24, 2012 02:39 |
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sportsgenius86 posted:to be fair, he's been putting up a fight for like 7 years now. Every time he beats one, someone starts another one. Now he can save some face and claim he just got tired of it instead of being found guilty and hearing the testimony aired in a public forum. As a fan of the sport, there's a lot of mixed feelings here.
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| # ? Aug 24, 2012 02:43 |
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xie posted:Because he is almost unquestionably guilty. I understand his position, but they had him cold this time and it was going to get ugly. He almost assuredly cheated - almost everyone who he beat has been outed as a doper, many people he rode with have been caught or admitted it. I'm not denying any of that. I was just throwing it out there that this isn't his first go around in terms of defending himself.
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| # ? Aug 24, 2012 02:44 |
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Given the Feds' track record with Bonds and Clemens, I thought Lance would have had a pretty good shot of beating these charges. I guess not. 
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| # ? Aug 24, 2012 02:46 |
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xie posted:Because he is almost unquestionably guilty. I understand his position, but they had him cold this time and it was going to get ugly. How do you know this though? I don't know if he's guilty or not, but I imagine that putting up with this poo poo for almost a decade has taken its toll. It might be that he finally realized that no matter how many times he's been cleared / exonerated they just come after him again.
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| # ? Aug 24, 2012 02:47 |
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Congratulations Jan Ullrich, 5-time Tour de France champ!!! e: 4 times, I guess - Bjarne Riis and Marco Pantani's wins still stand Oz Fox fucked around with this message at Aug 24, 2012 around 02:54 |
| # ? Aug 24, 2012 02:50 |
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What a lovely situation. I know that a ton of people have admitted to being dopers and pointed fingers at Armstrong also being one but I never wanted to believe it unless actual 'proof' came out. I guess I still have a hard time believing it. I would have never gotten interested in cycling and the Tour de France so many years ago if it hadn't been for Lance. I feel incredibly conflicted and heartbroken.
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| # ? Aug 24, 2012 02:55 |
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Is there any physical evidence of cheating? Proof, aside from testimony? Any at all? Because seriously, the guy is the most-tested athlete of all time, and he never tested positive once. If he cheated, wouldn't that mean that all testing is pretty much worthless?
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| # ? Aug 24, 2012 02:57 |
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Mike Toole posted:Is there any physical evidence of cheating? Proof, aside from testimony? Any at all?
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| # ? Aug 24, 2012 02:58 |
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Your new TdF winners... 1999 - Alex Zulle 2000 - Jan Ulrich 2001 - Jan Ulrich 2002 - Joseba Beloki 2003 - Jan Ulrich 2004 - Andreas Kloden 2005 - Ivan Basso
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| # ? Aug 24, 2012 02:59 |
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^^^^^^^ Is Kloden the only one on that list who hasn't been popped (he may have been. I just don't remember) calcio posted:Wasn't there the whole positive french "tampered" test fiasco? If it involves the French, you might as well not even acknowledge its existence.
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| # ? Aug 24, 2012 03:02 |
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sportsgenius86 posted:If it involves the French, you might as well not even acknowledge its existence.
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| # ? Aug 24, 2012 03:04 |
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Mike Toole posted:Is there any physical evidence of cheating? Proof, aside from testimony? Any at all? I'm assuming this recent "acceptance" is probably preceding some new evidence surfacing.
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| # ? Aug 24, 2012 03:05 |
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Breaky posted:How do you know this though? The type of numbers riders were putting up, until just a few years ago, are believed to be physiologically impossible to do without doping. There's a drat good reason cycling has, quite literally, slowed down since the 90s -- people are climbing Alpe d'Huez about 3-4 minutes slower than a decade ago, and that's an absolute eternity in cycling. And that's just over one climb. http://www.sportsscientists.com/201...discussion.html this post is absolutely essential reading. Oz Fox posted:Congratulations Jan Ullrich, 5-time Tour de France champ!!! I have to imagine they're going to leave the standings vacant (like Kohl's polka dot jersey win), as Ullrich was found guilty of doping earlier this year. But they only had him nailed from, like, 2005 onwards, so his second place finishes still stand. Would be a bit of a sham though...
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| # ? Aug 24, 2012 03:05 |
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All the USADA can do is "make a recommendation" for his titles to be stripped, it's still up to the international body to make that decision. At least that's my understanding. edit: http://abcnews.go.com/m/story?id=17066016&sid=78 quote:The agency can impose a lifetime ban and recommend Armstrong be stripped of his titles. That would put the question in the hands of the International Cycling Union, which has disputed USADA's authority to pursue the investigation and Tour de France officials, who have had a prickly relationship with Armstrong over the years.
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| # ? Aug 24, 2012 03:06 |
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denizen posted:All the USADA can do is "make a recommendation" for his titles to be stripped, it's still up to the international body to make that decision. At least that's my understanding. They've been waiting for a reason. It's a foregone conclusion as long as the slightest justification exists.
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| # ? Aug 24, 2012 03:08 |
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sportsgenius86 posted:^^^^^^^ I don't think Beloki got popped, unless you want to count his shin bone
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| # ? Aug 24, 2012 03:08 |
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This is the same organization that didn't want the USADA to investigate it in the first place and had already dropped their investigation so why do we think they are so hardcore to punish him?
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| # ? Aug 24, 2012 03:08 |
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^^^ because the TDF has a say Allyn posted:I don't think Beloki got popped, unless you want to count his shin bone my fault. He must have been cleared in the Puerto thing.
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| # ? Aug 24, 2012 03:10 |
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e: quote is not edit
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| # ? Aug 24, 2012 03:10 |
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He was so sure that decision wouldn't haunt him forever.
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| # ? Aug 24, 2012 03:11 |
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Has there ever been a situation where someone has been recommended to have their titles stripped and it NOT happening at this point?
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| # ? Aug 24, 2012 03:13 |
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Wow, was not expecting to read this tonight. Depressing to see a guy who, throughout my childhood and teenage years, was held up as proof that anything can be overcome turn out to most likely be a cheater.
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| # ? Aug 24, 2012 03:13 |
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Do they really not like him that much to put him through all of us? It seems like they don't like the fact that someone won the TdF so many times in a row.
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| # ? Aug 24, 2012 03:21 |
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So his prize money is stripped? He has to pay someone back or what?
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| # ? Aug 24, 2012 03:27 |
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Ringo Star Get posted:Do they really not like him that much to put him through all of us? It seems like they don't like the fact that someone won the TdF so many times in a row. It's a little of that, but it's a little bit of the fact that the sport is so dirty that such a massive doping ring has the ability to exist and thwart/hamper any investigation thrown at it. The more times Armstrong won proclaiming his cleanliness, the more his (busted) doping buddies were willing to flip.
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| # ? Aug 24, 2012 03:28 |
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Fighting those charges for so long took a lot of ball.
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| # ? Aug 24, 2012 03:29 |
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Lance still rules. He has done too much good for me to think badly of him.
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| # ? Aug 24, 2012 03:33 |
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Retail Slave posted:Fighting those charges for so long took a lot of ball. boo
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| # ? Aug 24, 2012 03:44 |
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calcio posted:Your new TdF winners... Well, I feel much better about clean tour winners from the Armstrong era now!
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| # ? Aug 24, 2012 03:46 |
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Does it really matter? He may have been cheating, but everyone else was too. It's like stripping wins in college football. Pretty much meaningless. Especially at this point where he's already filthy rich from endorsements.
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| # ? Aug 24, 2012 03:51 |
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MisterBibs posted:It's a little of that, but it's a little bit of the fact that the sport is so dirty that such a massive doping ring has the ability to exist and thwart/hamper any investigation thrown at it. George Hincapie was willing to testify against Armstrong. The guy who was Armstrong's domestique through all 7 TdF wins. I'd have to agree with a few other posters here - Armstrong saw the writing on the wall and gave up instead of being publicly humiliated. The sad thing, at least to me, is that Armstrong is likely going to be remembered for being the ballsiest (no pun intended) cheat of all time rather than his charity work.
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| # ? Aug 24, 2012 03:54 |
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I think it's pretty funny the man passed every single drug test. He's the greatest cheater of all time.
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| # ? Aug 24, 2012 03:57 |
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I don't know that much about it, but from what I do know it doesn't seem that tough to pass a blood doping test. Thus why everybody's doing it (or was doing it, at least).
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| # ? Aug 24, 2012 04:01 |
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His decision probably has more to do with the real feds wanting a piece of him than the USADA.
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| # ? Aug 24, 2012 04:03 |
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Rand alPaul posted:I think it's pretty funny the man passed every single drug test. He's the greatest cheater of all time. Actually, the USADA is claiming that Armstrong's samples from the 2009 and 2010 TdF are consistent with blood doping.
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| # ? Aug 24, 2012 04:03 |
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I'm not a sports fan, so I don't really understand the whole 'anti-doping' thing. Everyone takes drugs, from caffeine to wake them up to alcohol to make them sleep. I'm sure Lance's diet was calibrated to the micro level by a team of scientists, and his bike was precision engineered. Wouldn't sports be more interesting if we acknowledged and allowed all forms of performance enhancers, from steroids to artificial limbs? It would be like sports with power-ups. They'd also separate the full range of human ingenuity, not just physical skill.
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| # ? Aug 24, 2012 04:09 |
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| # ? May 25, 2013 04:55 |
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Thing is wasn't the whole tour pretty much doping during that time? If so are they going after every single person?
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| # ? Aug 24, 2012 04:10 |
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