Lance Armstrong banned for life, stripped of 7 Tour titles

As Vec mentioned, ppl are still supporting him for all that he has done for cancer research and cancer awareness. Also, he's a great feel-good story for cancer patients.

But more importantly, there isn't irrefutable evidence proving that he had doped. Whereas in other sports, the athlete(s) failed a drug test, failed on the sample B test, and lost on appeal (if it went that far). Hence, it's hard to deny the athlete didn't dope.

In Lance Armstrong's case, there isn't much evidence. The only "solid" piece of scientific evidence is from a test supposedly from 2009. But, we don't even know the details of that test yet. The rest of the "evidence" that I have mentioned multiple times here already is from testimony from about 10 ex-teammates who was guilty of doping themselves and have coped a plea bargain to essentially get immunity.

Come on now! If that doesn't scream biased and questionable testimony, I don't know what else can!



Yeah, good points.

Hmmm...but what do the USADA (or whatever that is) have against him for them to go through all these hoops to punish him?

What about innocent until proven guilty?

If the reports are true, then the only evidence the government has is witness testimony (tainted) from former teammates and supposedly a lab test from 2009. That wouldn't really convince any court that it started back in 1999 or so.

Perhaps, Lance is just tired of it all and he knows the insurmountable effort it would take to refute those 10 witnesses' testimony...albeit, tainted due to their "get out of jail free" card if they testified against him. In the history of the American judicial system, there are well documented cases where supposed witnesses were urged to testify against ppl in order to get reduced sentences or immunity and the testimony were often lies or exaggerations.

So, don't be so quick to assume guilt. Sure, it doesn't help his cause by just giving up. But, I think part of it was his lawyers' advice that it may not even be worth it because the circus may continue forever. And, the USADA's jurisdiction may not extend to all the cycling governing bodies. Hence, it may only be a "moral" victory for the USADA since the other organizations may not accept their finding since every judge and legal expert have already contended that the USADA's motives, tactics, and "evidence" were questionable.

The Federal government already dropped their charges against Lance because they knew that had no solid case against him. So, the USADA stepped up and made the accusations since their burden of proving their case isn't the same as in criminal court. As seen in the NFL currently with the whole Saints' supposed bounty system, they can judge players on hearsay and less-than-solid "evidence" that wouldn't amount to much in a court of law.

I'm not even a Lance Armstrong fan. It just bugs me when I read or hear ppl saying that he must then be guilty since he's giving up the fight. Note, the UCI has already blasted the USADA about this already. Thus, it's very likely that the USADA ruling won't be accepted by anyone else. I wouldn't be surprised if Lance plans on suing each individual group if they decide to go with the USADA finding to strip him of his titles and wins. Because if Lance then takes those organizations to court, they must prove the USADA's case, which is supposedly weak at best.