Lance Armstrong stripped of his 7 Tour de France titles

[Nameless]

This whole Lance Armstrong thing still stinks to me. Armstrong, who has retired anyway is given a lifetime ban, whilst those guys who rode and doped with him get a six month ban because they stitched someone else up? For those guys still riding, that kind of incentive calls into question their testimony. And this is being spearheaded by the testimony of Tyler Hamilton and Floyd Landis....

If it wasn't for the guys like George Hincapie, who has nothing to lose, and as far as I can see nothing to gain from his testimony, then I would probably still be following the Armstrong defence. Then again, there's other people on his teams coming out saying they were never pushed or asked to do anything. I want to see what the UCI have to say before putting the final nail in the coffin, it just seems to me there are too many people with too many vendettas going on for anyone, riders, managers, journalists, regulators et al to come out with any credit at all.

This remains true however, and there are legacies that have been tainted in a much worse way. Jimmy Saville to name but one.

Thus said, the fact that Lance is a 500 millions charity caterer for cancer is all another debate and nobody can discredit him for that.

The thing is that it's not only people testifying against him, many of his samplers have been found to be tainted by peds (only these things were harder to detect bac then) and Chateau Malabry is without the shadow of a doubt one of the toppest notch labs in the world. IT is getting quite hard for him to justify anything and his strongest line of defense, at this point, would consist in claiming for a world plot against him.
I still think that people should stop to beat the stick on him though, yes, he was guilty, just like many others, case close, move on, he has had enough and we should still all be grateful to him for what he did for cancer, 500 millions ain't a pocket full of pennies.

[Howlin Mad Missy]

surprised ryan isn't all over this

[Beanz]

Looks like someone wants their money back

Lance Armstrong must return all prize money, insists Christian Prudhomme - Telegraph

[ryanman]

surprised ryan isn't all over this

I have now read and assimilated the full 1000 pages. The verdict is in - He dun did it.

I believed him until quite recently. But -
1) He definately doped. His denials are now akin to believing in the tooth fairy
2) He DID fail tests. They were covered up.
3) Also, he was NOT the FIRST AMONGST EQUALS as his doping procedures and system was far superior to others.
4) People don't all react the same to PEDS - He went from decent to unstoppable. Others went from good to very good. It was not fair even though they were 'all' doing it.
5)He wasn't just a participant in the culture he ENFORCED the culture. He was the godfather of cheating. He forced young teammates to dope or would terminate their contracts.
6) He destroyed the reputation of clean riders that spoke out - eg Bassons and Simeoni. This is public knowledge.

I could go on.

[El Kabong]

Cycling is a dirty sport as shown by this whole mess. Lance doped but everyone else doped, so what if his doping was better the point is who were the "clean" cyclists?

My main beef with Armstrong is that he threatened American cycling hero Greg LeMond....that showed a lack of class, a huge sign of disrepect, and truly showed what a bully Lance is.

[ryanman]

Cycling is a dirty sport as shown by this whole mess. Lance doped but everyone else doped, so what if his doping was better the point is who were the "clean" cyclists?

My main beef with Armstrong is that he threatened American cycling hero Greg LeMond....that showed a lack of class, a huge sign of disrepect, and truly showed what a bully Lance is.

The clean cyclists were near the middle and back of the peloton in this era unfortunately. Look at the story of Christophe Bassons as an example of the man.

Yes your point on LeMond is exactly right and is a trick he repeated on many people, women included. And on people that had been his friends. If anybody outside of his doping ring found out about it he attempted to destroy their credibility. Often he would launch lawsuits to much fanfare against people that talked before quietly dropping them before they went to court.

[El Kabong]

Cycling is a dirty sport as shown by this whole mess. Lance doped but everyone else doped, so what if his doping was better the point is who were the "clean" cyclists?

My main beef with Armstrong is that he threatened American cycling hero Greg LeMond....that showed a lack of class, a huge sign of disrepect, and truly showed what a bully Lance is.

The clean cyclists were near the middle and back of the peloton in this era unfortunately. Look at the story of Christophe Bassons as an example of the man.

Yes your point on LeMond is exactly right and is a trick he repeated on many people, women included. And on people that had been his friends. If anybody outside of his doping ring found out about it he attempted to destroy their credibility. Often he would launch lawsuits to much fanfare against people that talked before quietly dropping them before they went to court.

He told LeMond "I'll have 10 cyclists say that you doped" in order to shut him up. Armstrong knew LeMond didn't dope, but he was prepared to lie and destroy lives to keep his way...it's a shame.

Lance Armstrong is getting what he gave...he could have been a success story and been the hero everyone wanted him to be but its sad it came to this.

[TitoFan]

In the end he was dirtier and meaner than many of us thought. Given the overwhelming evidence, not just of the doping, but of the coercing and the rest of his shady activities, it's clear he's getting what he deserves. On the other hand, I'm glad while it lasted that he did inspire a lot of cancer patients. This in itself carries just as much, if not more, weight... when you look at the big picture. The big loser here is cycling itself. It's a sport that can hardly afford to lose whatever fan base it has.

[VictorCharlie]

Meh, being the best cheater in a sport full of cheaters should count for something. This reminds of the Bonds hate. Everyone asks how many of the HRs was he juicing for but no one asks how many of the fastballs he saw were thrown by juiced pitchers.