Lance Armstrong (Wikimedia by McSmit)
I knew this day would someday come. For years I’ve been a fan of Lance Armstrong but over the years I began to realize that he’s not Superman. There’s no way he could be clean when so many of the other greats in the sport have fallen from doping allegations. Armstrong has access to the best lawyers and perhaps had access to the best alleged doping schemes. In the end, though, there’s no way his years-old drug testing samples could outlast the advancign science of drug testing.
Armstrong still doesn’t admit to doping, but his action yesterday tells me all I need to know. I’m disappointed that this day has come.
The U.S. Anti-Doping Agency said Thursday night it will strip Lance Armstrong of his unprecedented seven Tour de France titles after he declared he was finished fighting the drug charges that threaten his legacy as one of the greatest cyclists of all time.
Travis Tygart, USADA’s chief executive, said Armstrong would also be hit with a lifetime ban on Friday.
“There comes a point in every man’s life when he has to say, ‘Enough is enough.’ For me, that time is now,” Armstrong said in a statement sent to The Associated Press. He called the USADA investigation an “unconstitutional witch hunt.”
via USADA to ban Armstrong for life, strip Tour titles – WRALSportsFan.com.
UCI still doesn’t accept that USADA has the power to do what it is claiming to do so the story isn’t over yet. Also, USADA has yet to offer any physical proof at all. Armstrong has never failed a drug test, ever. All the USADA has offered is anonymous testimony. If a 3rd world country “convicted” someone on the basis of anonymous testimony we would call it a kangaroo court. This is exactly the same thing. Even the judge that dismissed Armstrong’s suit suggested the USADA had a axe to grind against Armstrong and was not, in fact, following it’s own rules (which have an 8 year statute of limitations that they aren’t following in Armstrong’s case) and suggested that the motivation was political rather than wanting to clean things up.
So, at this point, when fix is obviously in, why should he cooperate with the process anymore. Federal investigators have cleared him, the UCI has cleared him. The only person that seems to think he’s guilty is Travis Tygart at the USADA and he doesn’t have any proof at all. The fact that he’s refusing to dance when they’re shooting at his feet doesn’t prove anything.
Show me some physical proof and then I’ll believe it, but until then I don’t believe a word the USADA says about it.
True. USADA only says they have evidence “fully consistent” with doping, but they don’t call it a positive result.
Also the judge found plenty to question in the USADA’s single-minded pursuit of Armstrong
I will withhold judgement until UCI weighs in.
The “fully consistent” “evidence” they claim to have is from his return to the tour in 2009 and even that they have refused to provide to the UCI. They have not claimed, and as such I do not believe they have, any evidence that shows doping from the time when he won his 7 TdF titles.