http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...cycling-life-stripped-Tour-France-titles.html Lets hope we arent hearing about our cyclists in a few years time.
To be fair he hasn't admitted anything he just doesn't believe he will get a fair trial which i agree with, as four cyclists have admitted they have been offered illegally payments of some kind to testify against him.
It all seems rather corrupt, with the other cyclists already admitting to being offered bribes and the USADA refusing to disclose which samples were tested, when they were tested and by who, suggests there's a lot more to this. Let's face it, if you run your own internal tests you can dope a sample retrospectively and the reinforce this by paying others to testify. The only thing I don't get is what motive they would have to do this? The good thing is even though the USADA have threatened to strip him of his titles they are in fact powerless to do this, the UCI would have to do it and they have backed Armstrong so far.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/ot...-extension-USADA-response-doping-charges.html The salient point for me is: Three former staff members of the United States Postal Service team, for which Armstrong rode between 1998 and 2004, were handed lifetime bans by USADA on Tuesday. Dr Luis Garcia del Moral (cycling team doctor), Dr Michele Ferrari (cycling team consulting doctor) and Jose 'Pepe' Marti (cycling team trainer) received the sanctions after being found guilty of anti-doping violations while with USPS team between 1999 and 2007. 2 Dr's and the trainerr banned. He either lived completely in his own bubble or he was in it up to his neck
He won the Tour de France 7 times in a row, if he was up to his neck in it, surely he would have tested positive somewhere along the line. Something about this stinks, Armstrong retired 7 years ago, why do this now? Like I've already said, why didnt he test positive at the time? The guy won 7 years in a row! Are you telling me the whole time, he didnt take one test? Look at other riders that have been banned, Landis, Hamilton, Miller, Heras, Vinokourov, Contador, all found guilty of doping immediately after or soon after the offence. I think Armstrong has seriously pissed off someone at the USADA.
Armstrong seriously pissed off lots of ppl during his career cause thats the sort of guy he is, it's also what made him such an incredible athlete. But of course he was up to his neck in it. He doesn't want all the evidence coming out, that's why he's not fighting it. Its a sad day for cycling and a can of worms has been opened...
Think of a PC: You don't get an anti-virus until the virus has appeared.....and been identified. Now think of a performance-enhancing drug: How long is it before they can identify it/see what went down?
To take away all his Tour wins would necessitate awarding them to the second placegetters who were possibly as heavily involved in using banned substances.Other winners of the tour have in subsequent years have either admitted or been proved to have used stimulants .The real question is .........What is a level playing field and which minority have remained stimulant free. There will always be athletes who try to beat the system. Foot racers,bike racers etc etc.One deliberate discretion should result in Lifetime bans in their sport and the public wouldn't have to ponder the question of who is or is not "clean".Personally I'm fed up with the Athletes who are allowed back after minimal suspensions the Likes of Contador,Justin Gatlin and many other Olympians should never get a second chance.
Does it really matter anymore now that he has retired ? Plus why did he not fail previous tests ? Crazy situation that should have been sorted out yonks ago. imo.
I appreciate that, EPO is the drug in question. I know that EPO has only been tested since 2001 and we're going back to 99, possibly earlier. Armstrong won the Tour 4, maybe 5 times after the introduction of EPO testing and didnt fail any tests. How can the tests given in 99/00 etc be used as evidence? Given the apparent vendetta against Armstrong how can it be credible? Like I said, the whole thing stinks!
Whole thing is weird for sure. He's incredibly popular here but I don't know one amateur cyclist who thinks he was clean.
He's just announced that he has given up contesting the doping charges, and continually having to proclaim his innocence, as instead, he wants to devote all his time, riding for... Team Columbia.
Surely you mean Colombia. Anyway, Armstrong pissed a few people off on his way up including officials, team-mates and especially the USADA. They, or more to the point Travis Tygart, want to nail him even though they have little ot no jurisdiction over world cycling and have been proved to have bribed other busted dopers to cry cheat, who have then in return taken a reduced charge or have not had their names sullied. It's a witch-hunt. How can somebody pass every test at every event for 15 years? They need to drop it, like Armstrong has. Basically he'd saying y'know what, it's total BS and i can't be bothered to play your games anymore - say what you want cos i don't care anymore.
This year, on the Tour, Frank Schleck got disqualified - for a diuretic..... Now - a diuretic is 'merely' a urine expellant, isn't it? Well, maybe, but it's also used as a masking agent for much dodgier substances.......
please log in to view this image Edit to add: This shows the years when Armstrong won the TdF (right click pic and "view image" for a better look). The ones with a white background have never been banned due to drugs, the ones with a dark background have.
