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Edited Date/Time
11/12/2012 9:57am
Declaring "enough is enough," Lance Armstrong says he will not fight charges brought by the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency, a surprising decision that sets the stage for the cyclist to be stripped of the Tour de France titles that turned him into an American hero....more
Statement by Lance Armstrong
There comes a point in every man's life when he has to say, "Enough is enough." For
me, that time is now. I have been dealing with claims that I cheated and had an unfair
advantage in winning my seven Tours since 1999. Over the past three years, I have
been subjected to a two-year federal criminal investigation followed by Travis Tygart's
unconstitutional witch hunt. The toll this has taken on my family, and my work for our
foundation and on me leads me to where I am today - finished with this nonsense.
I had hoped that a federal court would stop USADA's charade. Although the court was
sympathetic to my concerns and recognized the many improprieties and deficiencies in
USADA's motives, its conduct, and its process, the court ultimately decided that it could
not intervene.
If I thought for one moment that by participating in USADA's process, I could confront
these allegations in a fair setting and - once and for all - put these charges to rest, I
would jump at the chance. But I refuse to participate in a process that is so one-sided
and unfair. Regardless of what Travis Tygart says, there is zero physical evidence to
support his outlandish and heinous claims. The only physical evidence here is the
hundreds of controls I have passed with flying colors. I made myself available around
the clock and around the world. In-competition. Out of competition. Blood. Urine.
Whatever they asked for I provided. What is the point of all this testing if, in the end,
USADA will not stand by it?
From the beginning, however, this investigation has not been about learning the truth or
cleaning up cycling, but about punishing me at all costs. I am a retired cyclist, yet
USADA has lodged charges over 17 years old despite its own 8-year limitation. As
respected organizations such as UCI and USA Cycling have made clear, USADA lacks
jurisdiction even to bring these charges. The international bodies governing cycling
have ordered USADA to stop, have given notice that no one should participate in
USADA's improper proceedings, and have made it clear the pronouncements by
USADA that it has banned people for life or stripped them of their accomplishments are
made without authority. And as many others, including USADA's own arbitrators, have
found, there is nothing even remotely fair about its process. USADA has broken the
law, turned its back on its own rules, and stiff-armed those who have tried to persuade
USADA to honor its obligations. At every turn, USADA has played the role of a bully,
threatening everyone in its way and challenging the good faith of anyone who questions
its motives or its methods, all at U.S. taxpayers' expense. For the last two months,
USADA has endlessly repeated the mantra that there should be a single set of rules,
applicable to all, but they have arrogantly refused to practice what they preach. On top
of all that, USADA has allegedly made deals with other riders that circumvent their own
rules as long as they said I cheated. Many of those riders continue to race today.
The bottom line is I played by the rules that were put in place by the UCI, WADA and
USADA when I raced. The idea that athletes can be convicted today without positive A
and B samples, under the same rules and procedures that apply to athletes with
positive tests, perverts the system and creates a process where any begrudged exteammate
can open a USADA case out of spite or for personal gain or a cheating cyclist
can cut a sweetheart deal for themselves. It's an unfair approach, applied selectively, in
opposition to all the rules. It's just not right.
USADA cannot assert control of a professional international sport and attempt to strip
my seven Tour de France titles. I know who won those seven Tours, my teammates
know who won those seven Tours, and everyone I competed against knows who won
those seven Tours. We all raced together. For three weeks over the same roads, the
same mountains, and against all the weather and elements that we had to confront.
There were no shortcuts, there was no special treatment. The same courses, the same
rules. The toughest event in the world where the strongest man wins. Nobody can ever
change that. Especially not Travis Tygart.
Today I turn the page. I will no longer address this issue, regardless of the
circumstances. I will commit myself to the work I began before ever winning a single
Tour de France title: serving people and families affected by cancer, especially those in
underserved communities. This October, my Foundation will celebrate 15 years of
service to cancer survivors and the milestone of raising nearly $500 million. We have a
lot of work to do and I'm looking forward to an end to this pointless distraction. I have a
responsibility to all those who have stepped forward to devote their time and energy to
the cancer cause. I will not stop fighting for that mission. Going forward, I am going to
devote myself to raising my five beautiful (and energetic) kids, fighting cancer, and
attempting to be the fittest 40-year old on the planet
biggest bummer about the Lance Armstrong news... all the cancer sufferers reading the headlines this evening just lost a hero.
The Shop
Anyone who would raise a 1/2 billion $$ for someone else has to be a criminal.
I think I'll go buy a yellow silicon wrist band.
I have a better idea, go after the guys on Wall street that stole millions of dollars from hard working people, get their money back, and lock up those slimy bastards.
It seems to me that this is his life now. He must create a headline or he is done.
If he was clean then, he must live and die against this statement. If it is a lie, you must fight it forever.
It is simple. He must fight for his 7 wins if he was clean.
I really think he has a few days to change his mind and tell them all Fuck You....I'll fight you forever....otherwise his life as a star is over.....not only over, but tarnished and over.
What really sucks is all those little kids....all the books that will get returned for their money back - for fraud, all the people that have given to his charities that will not continue to give.....there are (arguably) millions of people that are inspired by Lance, and rightfully so....what a fuckin athlete.
If it's a lie, he should fight forever. His honesty reflects on so many people. I really hope he was straight in all those wins and he really comes back with a big FUCK YOU! ....on the other hand ......need I say more.
How long should he give these doping agencies pay offs under the table and lose 100s of thousands of his money to his lawyers for this crap?
Look, we all know he doped. But if you think that him finally saying enough is enough is an admission of guilt, or that cancer survivors should no longer use him as inspiration, you are seriously missing the point here. Whether he was doping or not is not relevant. The whole field is on something or another. It a moot issue at this point.
They repeatedly come after Lance because he is a cash cow. He's finally said he isnt going to pay them any more. The USDA can claim victory all they want but behind closed doors, they are NOT happy. This is not the conclusion they wanted.
The USDA's motives werent about cleaning up the sport, its about shaking a tree. Once you understand that you quickly understand that Lance didnt walk away from him innocence in this case, he walked away from a shakedown.
I'm usually skeptical about someone who decides to give up fighting for their innocence like this but when you hear the overwhelming evidence of unfairness by the USADA, I can't blame him. And I don't think his charity will suffer one bit. He isn't admitting guilt, and he is maintaining his story that his races were won fair and square, he's just allowing his name to be removed from a superficial piece of paper. I wish more racers would back Armstrong and boycott anything that the USADA is a part of but unfortunately there is too much money in it and I don't see enough racers boycotting to make an impact.
This is just another sad story about the litigational country we've become. . .
Pit Row
P
P
http://www.outsideonline.com/outdoor-adventure/athletes/lance-armstrong…
It was shortly after this news leaked - http://www.latimes.com/sports/sportsnow/la-sp-sn-cycling-armstrong-usad…
that Hincapie announced his retirement at the end of this year's TdF
Once Lance couldn't stop it in court, because they lack jurisdiction, he couldn't fight it any longer, he knew it.
Banned for life from cycling? Pfffttt! That arrogant fucker did more for cycling than anyone in the history of the sport. He should start his own Tour.
P
I believe there's a chance he was on something that was maybe undetectable in those days. I also am absolutely sure that if he was on something, so was everyone else since they would have been more desperate to gain an advantage in order to try to stay with Lance. In that case, if everyone has the same "advantage", was he cheating? Don't know.
I really think this is more of a case of old grudges never dying out. Lance came in as a cocky Texan, hated by most of his competitors, especially the French, and beat them on their home turf. 7 times. At the end of the day, they guy busted his ass more than anyone else in that field and was just flat out tougher. He's a true Texan, so screw the USADA and any other riders who want to push him down. It's really sad that riders today, knowing they could also be persecuted for doping, would rather pile onto him in order to get immunity and guarantee that they won't loose their winnings from their career, simply by accusing others of doing the same.
Lance has done more for cycling than anyone in history, especially cycling in the US. I'll continue to wear my US Postal Service and Discovery Team jerseys proudly. In my mind, he's still one of the baddest of all time.
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