Posted on 10/22/2012 7:23:47 AM PDT by AmericanSamurai
GENEVA, Oct 22 (Reuters) - Lance Armstrong was stripped of his seven Tour de France titles and banned for life on Monday after the International Cycling Union (UCI) ratified the United States Anti-Doping Agency's (USADA) sanctions against the American.
The long-awaited decision has left cycling facing its "greatest crisis" according to UCI president Pat McQuaid and has destroyed Armstrong's last hope of clearing his name.
"Lance Armstrong has no place in cycling. Lance Armstrong deserves to be forgotten in cycling," McQuaid told a news conference as he outlined how cycling, long battered by doping problems for decades, would have to start all over again.
"The UCI wishes to begin that journey on that path forward today by confirming that it will not appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport and that it will recognise the sanction that USADA has imposed.
"I was sickened by what I read in the USADA report."
On Oct. 10, USADA published a report into Armstrong which alleged the now-retired rider had been involved in the "most sophisticated, professionalized and successful doping program that sport has ever seen".
Armstrong, 41, had previously elected not to contest USADA charges, prompting USADA to propose his punishment pending confirmation from cycling's world governing body.
Former Armstrong team mates at his U.S. Postal and Discovery Channel outfits, where he won his seven successive Tour titles from 1999 to 2005, testified against him and themselves and were given reduced bans by the American authorities.
"It wasn't until the intervention of federal agents...they called these riders in and they put down a gun and badge on the table in front of them and said 'you're now facing a grand jury you must tell the truth' that those riders broke down," McQuaid added.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
“Lance Armstrong has enhance more lives and saved more lives than all of the “officals” in the UCI and USADA combined.”
Justice or empathy? A ‘wise latina’ may agree with you but in my book, a cheater is still a cheater.
Prove it. Forensics contradicts this version of reality.
How in the world could have he passed the "drug" tests and have been cheating?.....other than the "tests" themselves were rigged?....in which case, there are a lot of other people involved.
They keep talking about ‘evidence’. I have seen no ‘evidence’, only the testimony of hostile witnesses.....................
What a crappy to thing to say....says more about you than him!
V-E-N-D-E-T-T-A-!!!!!
No -- because none of it ever goes to cancer research.
So, how many years after an event is it OK to go back and harass somebody over it in your view? It has been well over a decade since he won his first tour. My view is that if he passed all existing tests administered at that time he should be left alone. I do recall Armstrong being extensively tested at the time. This whole affair seems like sour grapes to me and an effort to tear down an inspiration to millions for no real reason. It certainly does not make cycling look honest and above board to me.
re: He passed the tests. And that makes them liars.
= = = = = = = = = = = = =
What a silly statement. He passed the tests because he developed the most sophisticated system of cheating that would not be detected. Those who testified were under oath. They finally told the truth.
The RATS are good at vote fraud. Perhaps they will also some day get caught. When people testify about those doing it, will they be called liars?
If this logic is followed, then ought not Obama to be immediately stripped of his title as President and removed from office because of his very public marijuana smoking and possible cocaine use?
You are probably right.
Cyclists who raced with Armstrong have admitted to doping. And said that Armstrong did as well. They passed all the tests as well. So are they lying too???
USADA supporters could give Lenin’s supporters a run for their Communist money, too. Nothing like government being used to slander and destroy private citizens without due process.
Perfect post. They used him and now they are abusing him.
“Think what will happen to Colorado’s economy when they ban high altitude training.”
Not much. Won’t miss it a second. They’re just annoying obstacles anyway.
i’ve already given up on “professional” cycling. The Lance thing proves that either the sport is vindictive, or that anybody can cheat their drug tests and get away with it.
So either I’m watching a field of mostly drugged-up people,, with a few unfortunates who play by the rules and will NEVER get a chance to win, or I’m watching a sport much like professional wrestling, where only the “right” people are allowed to win, political correctness rules, and nothing is as it seems.
Neither seems to be very good.
But if I am to believe what people have written, there isn’t a single winner of the Tour De France in the past 20 years that wasn’t doped up.
I certainlly hope they don’t just award the victories to the 2nd-place people, since they clearly would be caught doping if anybody bothered to run a real doping test against them.
I don’t follow sports much. Fans are FANATICS. Blind for the cause.
Armstrong cheated. He cheated BIG. He set out to destroy people who didn’t have his resources and were put in untenable position of having to tell the truth.
Armstrong cheated the sport, the fans, and the real winner (even if the real non-doping winner was back in the pack).
He stole the fame, money and glory from the non-doping winner.
He threatened people’s livelihood and reputations.
Go drink some Armstrong Kool-aide. He’s a cheater and a rotten man.
He won the races. It really doesn’t matter whether you say he still holds the title. If the USADA has proven anything, it is that apparently everybody in cycling is doping, and they are almost all getting away with it. So frankly, if that is the case, it’s hard to see how they can say ANYBODY really “won” the Tour — for all we know, everybody in the tour is doped up on something.
When they can come up with the overwhelming proof I've seen in the last month there sould be NO limit. He cheated, he finally got caught. Deal with it.
UCI appears to have vacated the victories without (yet?) having declared an alternate winner..
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