Lance Armstrong Drops Doping Case - Will Be Stripped of Tour De France Wins

[diabsoule]

AP News Alert: Lance Armstrong abandons fight against doping charges. Will be stripped of Tour de France titles and banned for life.

Inglorious end for what was once considered one of the greatest American athletes. Although, if you're Lance Armstrong, can you justify using the performance enhancing drugs if they helped you beat testicular cancer?

[Brent]

dude makes so much Nike money, he probably doesn't give a **** any more.

[Rob S]

I'm pretty sure he did them. I'm also pretty sure the USDA doesn't have ****.

[yo123]

He never admitted to doing them and I don't blame him for wanting to be done with all this. He's never failed a drug test and he's been dealing with this since like 1999.

Then again maybe he did do them. I don't really care **** cycling.

[prock]

No one has ever won cycling clean, so **** it.

[CashmoneyDrew]

There's a testicular joke here somewhere. Working to find it.

[prock]

The Fake ESPN tweeted a decent one. "Lance Armstrong gives up defending his one shriveled nut."

[CashmoneyDrew]

I guess... he didn't have the balls to stand up for himself.

[Splat]

Originally Posted by CashmoneyDrew

I guess... he didn't have the balls to stand up for himself.

I read it like this.

[tjsunstein]

Cycling is a joke of a sport, everyone uses and everyone used back then. He never failed a test, that we know of. He's so much bigger than winning those titles, it's not like people are going to forget that he dominated the Tour de France, he's known more for his "Live Strong" campaign and he's still raking in more cash than any cyclist ever will.

[fenikz]

he was the best there was at riding a bicycle doping or not :)

[WCH]

This is probably going to do a number on his reputation. Don't get me wrong, I don't give two ***** about steroid use, in any sport. I certainly don't care about juicing in cycling.

To the American public, though, steroids rank right up there with rape, murder, and the reefer.

[Splat]

Originally Posted by WCH

This is going to do a number on his reputation.

I don't think enough people follow cycling enough to know or care. I think more people will just end up remembering him winning than this.

[prock]

Lance Armstrong's legacy: The only thing France has fought hard against in the last 500 years.

via facebook.

[Bob Sanders Dreadlock]

Cycling is just shooting themselves in the foot and making themselves look like jackasses. If lance never won 7 titles even less people would give a **** about cycling than they already do.

[SickwithIt1010]

Originally Posted by WCH

To the American public, though, steroids rank right up there with rape, murder, and the reefer.

Reefer and steroids are not anywhere near rape or murder.

[fenikz]

i would hope that weed is no where near steroids either :/

[prock]

Originally Posted by SickwithIt1010

Reefer and steroids are not anywhere near rape or murder.

No ****. I think you missed his point.

[tjsunstein]

He's bowing out before the overwhelming amount of 'witnesses', credible or not, tarnish whats left of his legacy. There's always going to be the 'did he or didn't he' since it was never proven. I don't care either way.

[killxswitch]

I wonder how many billions of dollars have been wasted on steroid investigations.

[Razor]

I was so happy when I read about this. It was so obvious that Armstrong was doped when he won the TDF titles. He was a decent athlete prior to his illness, but comes back ten times stronger? Something was wrong from the get go and even casual fans like me saw it. However, the TDF management is both incompetent and corrupt as ****, and since Armstrong was a great story due to his ordeal with cancer they simply overlooked the blatant cheating that was going on with the US Postal teams. They were doped like the mid-90s Telekom and Festina up until the middle of last decade despite the increased focus on cleaning the sport. So why didn't they step in before that? The public opinion of Armstrong changed quickly in Europe. Armstrong had a lot of fans early on, but after winning the first three TDFs it was so obvious what was going on that the perception of him changed. He was perceived as arrogant and fake, and towards the end of his career he was hated by most fans. Mostly because he was so obviously cheating, but also because the TDF just wasn't fun to watch anymore.

Armstrong deserves the most severe punishment that he can get. Strip him of the titles and go for his money. The UCI and TDF management needs to make a statement here with their actions so they a) punish Armstrong which he deserves, and b) appear less corrupt than they have earlier. Cycling is by no means a clean sport, but it's a helluva lot cleaner than it was ten years ago. Knowing that the riders are most likely clean makes it much more enjoyable for me to watch, so going hard after individuals such as Armstrong sits very well with me. I guess I rambled a bit here, but I just have this venemous hate towards Armstrong that it's hard for me not to go over the top here. I'm just happy that he'll be stripped of his titles.

[Jvig43]

His cameo in dodgeball just got less funny.

[YotoJets007]

Wow... I guess Roger Clemens is only the Sports' Don. Very disappointing.

[BigDawg819]

Lance retired last year, won his last TDF title 7 YEARS AGO, and they still go after him time and time again.

He didn't fail the tests when he was winning, plain and simple. That sport is so ****** up and nonsensical that it boggles the mind. The USADA continuing to go after Lance is right up there with the US Government going after Roger Clemens for perjury.

Lance tested "clean" while winning and yet that wasn't enough. Cycling is notorious for cheating and guess what the evidence that the USADA kept compiling was alot of former cyclists that had been caught cheating.

7 years and they still go after him, can't blame him for bowing out. Maybe he cheated, maybe he didnt, who cares? The sport was full of cheaters and I guess he was the best.

[ryno626]

I guess you can say he's taking his ball and going home