Lance Armstrong stripped of Tour de France titles

So, it's official that he lost his 7 titles and banned for life.

I feel it's unfair if you consider that all those finishing around him were also using some form of performance enhancer and they kept their places. If you think about it he still finished first on a level playing field.

Makes no sense really. Like u said, all those around him were doing the same thing and he was still better. So overall he was still the best. I think they ae just out to make an example of him. Even Nike has dropped him as one of their spnsored athletes, but they chose to keep Tiger Woods, where in my book what Woods did was far worse than Armstrong.

Performance enhancers, especially such as AAS will always be seen in a negative light in public. Just the false perceptions of steroids alone is shocking.

That said, I agree, Lance was on a level playing field, it would be like stripping Ronnie Coleman of his 8 Olympias for steroid use.

This is not over by a long shot! They claim they want to clean up the sport but nailing 1 guy is not going to do that. This goes much deeper than just 1 guy. I promise you there is allot of people sweating now that Lance don't start singing. I am not talking fellow athletes here! I am referring to major brands like Nike, Oakley ect. I have a feeling they played a active role in funding the doping system. There are allready evidence of bank transactions of amount like 500 000 dollars between Nike and the UCI.

This is a major shit storm waiting to happen.

I piss on those fellow riders who are making money out of so called confessions about Lance in return for a 6 month ban. I mean please!

He will always be the first man on the moon and nobody can take that away from him!!

ABC01 wrote: This is not over by a long shot! They claim they want to clean up the sport but nailing 1 guy is not going to do that. This goes much deeper than just 1 guy. I promise you there is allot of people sweating now that Lance don't start singing. I am not talking fellow athletes here! I am referring to major brands like Nike, Oakley ect. I have a feeling they played a active role in funding the doping system. There are allready evidence of bank transactions of amount like 500 000 dollars between Nike and the UCI.

This is a major shit storm waiting to happen.

I piss on those fellow riders who are making money out of so called confessions about Lance in return for a 6 month ban. I mean please!

I think you are right. Many sponsors play an active part in the doping of athletes... who do they think sponsor the chemistry and development costs of designer drugs?

DBatDBN wrote: He will always be the first man on the moon and nobody can take that away from him!!

Don't forget his career as an amazing jazz trumpeter!

Have no sympathy for the guy whatsoever. I am sure that every top 10 cyclist of the past decade will be found complicit for using performance enhancing substances; however, what irked me the most about Armstrong was how he continuously portrayed himself as somewhat of anti-doping crusader. Hypocrite in the highest regard. If you doping, then do so quietly and be thankful for not getting caught but dont whore yourself out to the world as an anti-doping campaigner and basically berate the very thing which could be giving you the competitive edge over your opponents.

Has he actually been found guilty of doping?

I agree, Lance won those TDF's fair and square since those top guys are all doping. If 80% of the top guys are doping then the guy who is best in the world might have to settle for an undeserved 5th place without any performance enhancers.

I read an article the other day that said that since 1980 17 of the 33 Tour de France wins are tainted with doping where the winner was found positive for an illegal substance, or later was proved to be using illegal substances. More than half of the wins!

Now that's just the guys who have been caught out.

But I do have a problem with the $5 million bonus he sued for where he swore under oath that he had never used any performance enhancing drugs before, and then got then to pay his legal fees and interest for another $2.5 million. It's fair that they want their money back. That was dishonest greed and their must be consequences.

Well 1st off: He never ever was a anti doping campaigner! The guy is a media genious! If you listen to his interviews he never claimed he did not dope, he says he never tested positive ever! There is a difference. He is the most tested athlete in history.

They are trying to pin this "doping culture" on 1 guy while it was a system used in all the teams not just Armstrong's. There is a very good book by Tyler Hamilton (cunt) called "The secret race" where he tells about all the doping systems in the sport. Great book and eye opener.

Problem is now that since they stripped Lance's titles they can't exactly give it to the 2nd place finishers in those race because they are all convicted dopers. Its a bloody joke :lol:

Not sure who has watched Bigger, Stronger, Faster. But this opened my eyes big time, you just cannot believe it, but EVERYONE is on something. Even the fitness models that just pose for the camera. As for sport, I think the only sport that is truly clean is Bowles!

and he will never be remembered for the things he did for cancer

DBatDBN wrote: Not sure who has watched Bigger, Stronger, Faster. But this opened my eyes big time, you just cannot believe it, but EVERYONE is on something. Even the fitness models that just pose for the camera. As for sport, I think the only sport that is truly clean is Bowles!

Yeah, I saw Gary Kasparov pinning some Deca the other day

But definitely, BSF was one of those documentaries that really opened my eyes regarding AAS, especially that part with Carl Lewis and Ben Johnson, what a joke!

But again, we can't call Armstrong a hypocrite unless we know he used steroids

DJ wrote: and he will never be remembered for the things he did for cancer

Now that you mention that! I find it ironic that the guys that pull out like Nike (17.5 million dollars since 2010) are still fully committed to the Livestrong foundation. Makes me think what he has on them.

Livestrong raises millions of dollars yearly for cancer research. Bad guy or not, he still does allot of good

its good for business to be associated with a ngo like livesteong...not many companys will pull their funding for a not for gain organisation like live strong

ABC01 wrote: Well 1st off: He never ever was a anti doping campaigner! The guy is a media genious! If you listen to his interviews he never claimed he did not dope, he says he never tested positive ever! There is a difference. He is the most tested athlete in history.

They are trying to pin this "doping culture" on 1 guy while it was a system used in all the teams not just Armstrong's. There is a very good book by Tyler Hamilton (cunt) called "The secret race" where he tells about all the doping systems in the sport. Great book and eye opener.

Problem is now that since they stripped Lance's titles they can't exactly give it to the 2nd place finishers in those race because they are all convicted dopers. Its a bloody joke :lol:

Well you probably missed his 2001 anti-doping commercial.



Also, my issue is not with him being stripped of his titles for doping as the sport of cycling is bereft with athletes using performance enhancers. My issue is, as MA mentioned, is that he benefited financially from being dishonest.

DJ wrote: its good for business to be associated with a ngo like livesteong...not many companys will pull their funding for a not for gain organisation like live strong

also, he has fully Lance has fully withdrawn from the Livestrong foundation and thus no longer has any ties with the organisation which would jeopardise their funding. Which I will admit was very very good of him.

Can that really be seen as an anti-doping commercial?

And again, unless it's been proven that he was doping, I still can't see him as a hypocrite

Theodoric wrote: Can that really be seen as an anti-doping commercial?

And again, unless it's been proven that he was doping, I still can't see him as a hypocrite

I doubt that measure such as stripping him of all of his seven titles, in addition to the massive sponsorship pullouts, would have been made unless there was irrefutable evidence to suggest that he was indeed using performance enhancing substances whilst partaking in the TDF. It would be very naive to thing otherwise.

As for the commerical, whilst not rigidly anti-doping, the underlying theme of the commerical places emphasis on the fact that LA has achieved what he has achieved through hard work and not via the assistance of performance enhancers.

Three days later, Armstrong, while publicly maintaining his innocence, decided to not officially challenge the USADA sanctions. In a statement, Armstrong said that the USADA had engaged in "an unconstitutional witch hunt" based on "outlandish and heinous claims." He added that he would have been more than willing to fight the charges, what he described as USADA's "one-sided and unfair" arbitration process was not worth the toll on his foundation and his family. "There comes a point in every man’s life when he has to say, 'Enough is enough.'" Armstrong said. "For me, that time is now." The New York Times reported that, "according to the WADA Code", Armstrong's failure to contest such serious charges of anti-doping rules violations means that he forfeits all awards and prizes earned after August 1, 1998, including his Tour titles, and is banned from any sport that uses the World Anti-Doping Code

Therefore he hasn't been found guilty of doping, he has just given up on fighting against those charges.

No-one in cycling natural?

That could be true, and I'm not saying that Lance isn't doping, but neither am I saying he is. Point is, singling him out is a bit unfair IMO

Here is a more accurate version

Theodoric wrote: No-one in cycling natural?

That could be true, and I'm not saying that Lance isn't doping, but neither am I saying he is. Point is, singling him out is a bit unfair IMO

You would be stunned at how many amateur cyclists dope! I am not even talking about only the elite level. If they had to test the top 10 in each category at local league events a large percentage would test positive

There is no question that he doped! I am a big Lance fan but the issue i have is that they go all out for him laying all the issues of pro cycling at his feet while the others are being slapped with short bans or cut a quick deal to talk shit about Lance. Two of his ex team mates testified against him(Landis and Hincapie). Their testimonies does not even match. There are only allegations but USADA has found him guilty and the UCI supports/accepts their finding.