In what is certain to be seen as a de-facto admission of guilt he announced he will no longer fight long standing accusations of doping. The USADA has announced it will strip him of all the honors, titles and awards he has received since 1998 including his seven Tour de France victories. He will also be banned for life from all sporting events that adhere to the World Anti-Doping Code.
This is incredibly sad.
Angels Sing! Merry Christmas!
9 hours ago
3 comments:
This whole thing is bizarre on a number of levels. How a US organization can ban an American from participating in an international event, or how an American organization has any authority to strip French racing titles is beyond me.
I honestly don't know what to make of Lance Armstrong. I would like to see the actual evidence they have, as they have had virtually nothing for years. I mean, the man never failed a drug test, and actual international racing organizations have dropped all the charges repeatedly over the years.
Conversely, usually where there's smoke there's fire, so I don't quite believe Armstrong either. But, in this case, there is at least suspicion that the accusations are made out of malice by Frenchmen mad that an American has beaten them at their own game for so many years.
I don't know, and honestly, I don't really care. It's not like bicycling is really that great a sport anyway.
I just find it disconcerting and unethical that all the "evidence" I've heard about is a group of anonymous witnesses. There hasn't been any sort of trial or anything, at least not to my knowledge. I bet there will some sort of lawsuit after this, however.
What's troubling (if you're an Armstrong supporter) is that they would have to produce their evidence if he took it to arbitration. Instead, he's dropping out of the fight when he could make them put up or shut up. It makes me suspect that he's afraid of what they'd show.
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