Earlier today I heard news that Lance Armstrong would not continue to challenge drug charges from
the US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA), In a statement he said:
"There comes a point in every man's life when he has to say, "Enough is enough." For me, that time is now... "I have been dealing with claims that I cheated and had an unfair advantage in winning my seven Tours since 1999, The toll this has taken on my family and my work for our foundation and on me leads me to where I am today – finished with this nonsense."
The USADA has taken this as an admission of guilt and handed him a life ban and stripped him of all wins from 1998 onwards in a statement it said
Personally I would love to think that Armstrong was clean and won his seven tours on his own merits, but cycling has been riddled with drug abuse over the years. I hope USADA publishes its evidence and the truth is out. whether it is sufficient to damn Armstrong will then be seen
If the evidence is sufficient for UCI to strip Armstrong of his palmares then choosing replacement winners will be an utter bastard! Have a look at this list and work out who should be named winners in his place.
I can imagine that the UCI believe that this affair is the last thing cycling needs. I wonder if UCI might just ad an asterisk to his victories as they did to Djarne Riis after he admitted to doping his way to victory in the 1996 Tour and leave the affair at that.
"There comes a point in every man's life when he has to say, "Enough is enough." For me, that time is now... "I have been dealing with claims that I cheated and had an unfair advantage in winning my seven Tours since 1999, The toll this has taken on my family and my work for our foundation and on me leads me to where I am today – finished with this nonsense."
The USADA has taken this as an admission of guilt and handed him a life ban and stripped him of all wins from 1998 onwards in a statement it said
"USADA announced today that Lance Armstrong has chosen not to move
forward with the independent arbitration process and as a result has
received a lifetime period of ineligibility and disqualification of all
competitive results from Aug 1, 1998 through the present,"
However it is down to cycling's international body UCI to decide whether or not to strip Armstrong of its titles
Armstrong had never failed a blood test but USADA states that it has evidence of systematic doping offences by Armstrong over the 15 years prior to his final retirement from sporting competition in 2011.
However it is down to cycling's international body UCI to decide whether or not to strip Armstrong of its titles
Armstrong had never failed a blood test but USADA states that it has evidence of systematic doping offences by Armstrong over the 15 years prior to his final retirement from sporting competition in 2011.
Personally I would love to think that Armstrong was clean and won his seven tours on his own merits, but cycling has been riddled with drug abuse over the years. I hope USADA publishes its evidence and the truth is out. whether it is sufficient to damn Armstrong will then be seen
If the evidence is sufficient for UCI to strip Armstrong of his palmares then choosing replacement winners will be an utter bastard! Have a look at this list and work out who should be named winners in his place.
I can imagine that the UCI believe that this affair is the last thing cycling needs. I wonder if UCI might just ad an asterisk to his victories as they did to Djarne Riis after he admitted to doping his way to victory in the 1996 Tour and leave the affair at that.
4 comments:
Like you, I really hope he's clean and innocent. But the mud will stick regardless.
I'd like to thinks so too Liz. It would be good to keep on knowing a drug free cyclist pissed all over the cheats year in year out. Alas I fear not
Now cycling really does need more decent hash!
A very sad thing in my book but who's to say any of the ones who will be given the medals will have been clean at the time anyway.
I think the process was not well done with no positive tests and all down to the word of others who were found to have lied themselves about using drugs.
Indeed MB. The sport was rife with cheats which means that if Armstrong is striped does the title go to someone who a couple of years later was banned for cheating himself!
Post a Comment