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 ...
Very thoughtful post. Gets me thinking about the nature of evil in the human heart and the rare examples of good sportsmanship ... right now I can't think of one.
Yes — the more time you spend raising awareness er money, the more time you’re spending on the charity’s mission of raising awareness er money.
Armstrong was guilty from day one. He was guilty of “competing while not being French”.
The most honest athlete is that very very very very very last person crossing a finish line in a marathon who, did not deviate from the courts (we have rfid tracking now) who is huffing and puffing to finished before the time runs out, who has the sweeper a few feet behind him and has only a waiting family member or just the clean up crew waiting for him to pass so they can take down the finish clock.
He probably has an extra 100 lbs more than he should, will never be sung or have product endorsements, his reward is a finisher medal and a bit extra time in life.
Jimmy Connors was a huge fan of the T-2000/T-3000 rackets (if rumors are to be believed). Tubular steel frames with a cross brace on the shaft, and able to string to a much higher tension than any of the wood available at the time.
Good point though, equipment and training “techniques” will always be pushed to the edge of the grey zone by the top level professionals.
I was rewatching some old “Gilmore Girls” (TV show), and they referenced Tonya Harding’s attack on Nancy Kerrigan. That was an extreme example, of course.
In the movie “Breaking Away”, which was nominally about an amateur bike racer, they have a scene where, after training for months, and blowing a fortune on a fancy bike, the guy gets to ride in a local race where an Italian team he idolizes is competing. Soon he is the only person keeping up with them, and he’s talking to them in Italian, trying to be their friend. They blow away from him smirking, but he puts his head down and passes them all.
Then they race back up to him, and one of the Italian professionals sticks a tire pump into his spokes, crashing him. I guess that’s my view of bike racing.
One example of goods sportsmanship I can think of in bike racing — Armstrong waiting for Ulrich in the 2001 Tour De France. Of course, now we “know” that Armstrong could afford to be magnanimous, because he was all juiced up and could run rings around anybody. ;-)
Yes, that is right. I remember that now.
My wife made me replace my good wooden racket. I kept if for a long time, although since I had lost my wooden racket frame, it had long since warped and looked more like a Jai Li racket....
Had a couple of old wooden sticks go that route. Same thing happens to table tennis rackets if they are not stored properly.
Jai alai... very tough sport. Wonder what they training “techniques” they use to enhance performance....
Cheers
Heck, even SPELLING it is beyond my capabilities :-)
Ah yes the notorious T2000 that when others used it flung the ball all over the place.
Haha! Funny, Bay!
Many seem to be acting like Lance was the only one doping and that gave him the edge he needed to win all of those races. That without doping he would not have won.
I do believe that without doping Lance Armstrong would not have won a race. That is not because he didn’t have the talent, that is because MOST of the other riders were juicing too. This goes back to the same arguments I heard about Baseball. If the pitcher and hitter are both doping, does either have an advantage?
Armstrong had no advantage as his doping did not really change the landscape. Its not like he was the only one out there on the juice. Most of the riders were, so no advantage to anyone there.
So then the question should be, why did the USADA conduct this investigation at all? It surely wasn’t to preserve the dignity of cycling!
Cycling would have been better off to leave this alone, improve their testing, learn from it, and move on.
I’m through with the TdF. This is just stoopid, you’ll never convince me Armstrong is guilty of anything the rest of ‘em aren’t just as dirty for.
The doper conspiracy theorists have less evidence than the birther conspiracy theorists.
Then there were Harry Reid’s taxer conspiracy theories against Mitt Romney.
Lance is an a'hole, but overrated, no. Winning 7 tours in a row is about like someone hitting 100 homers in a season in baseball. Even with dope.
He was doping, but he beat 100's of other dopers like a drum, year after year, after year.
Thanks for the ping, Baynative. Very interesting and interesting thread.
Its as if they are quietly letting anything go until someone they don't like becomes dominant. Then its time to take them down.
I could never stand Lance Armstrong. He is a huge liberal. I always thought he was overrated.
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