Lance Armstrong to lose all 7 Tour de France titles and face lifetime ban from cycling after announcing he won’t fight doping charges.
The AP reported:
Never one to back away from a fight, Lance Armstrong is finally giving in and the cost of quitting is steep: His seven Tour de France titles could be gone as soon as Friday.
The superstar cyclist, whose stirring victories after his comeback from cancer helped him transcend sports, chose not to pursue arbitration in the drug case brought against him by the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency. That was his last option in his bitter fight with USADA and his decision set the stage for the titles to be stripped and his name to be all but wiped from the record books of the sport he once ruled.
Travis Tygart, USADA’s chief executive, left no doubt that was the next step. He said Armstrong would lose the titles as soon as Friday and be hit with a lifetime ban, even though he is retired and turning 41 next month.
Armstrong released a statement following his decision not to pursue arbitration in a drug case brought against him by the US Anti-Doping Agency.
FOX Sports reported:
Lance Armstrong, beaten down by years of innuendo and a couple of months under the specter of official doping charges, surrendered Thursday night.
“At every turn, USADA [the US Anti-Doping Agency] has played the role of a bully, threatening everyone in its way and challenging the good faith of anyone who questions its motives or its methods, all at U.S. taxpayers’ expense,” Armstrong said in a statement sent to FOXSports.com.
“For the last two months, USADA has endlessly repeated the mantra that there should be a single set of rules, applicable to all, but they have arrogantly refused to practice what they preach.”
Seem strange that a man who beat back testicular cancer before winning seven Tour de France titles could be so easily detoured? Sure does.
Armstrong still denies he used testosterone, endurance-boosting EPO and/or any other banned methods to win any of his titles, but his options to clear his name dwindled after a lawsuit against the USADA was dismissed by a federal judge earlier this week.
The next step would have been a hearing in front of an arbitration panel, one that he decided ultimately not to take. It’s just prestige at this point, anyway, in a matter on which much of the public has already chosen sides.
“Today I turn the page. I will no longer address this issue, regardless of the circumstances,” continued Armstrong, who was subject to a two-year federal investigation before prosecutors dropped the case earlier this year.
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