Lance Armstrong stripped of Tour de France titles
 

Lance Armstrong says won't fight doping charges; will lose titles

Clearly there's more to this story--"The only thing I'm on is my bike" he famously said. Who knows? He's done being fought with. I'm kind of stunned.

I'm guessing he is done with the sport and done with this crap. I certainly understand the "done with fighting" thing. He only needs to comply/fight if he wants to continue. Clearly, he doesn't. I don't blame him.

I am saddened by this. The case against him does seem overwhelming - team manager and doctor and team-mates have all admitted it, apparently.

I want to know what he was on and how they got away with it for ten years.

Mmmm on a re-read it does scream "guilty" doesn't it?

I can understand him wanting to give up the fight, but if I were innocent, I wouldn't stop fighting.

I think he's giving up because he did it, he knows he will lose, and he thinks this will get the inevitable over with the quickest and still allow him to claim he's innocent.

The whole doping thing is a shame. It's not just him. You have to question pretty much all the records of the last 30-40 years in all the major sports. The Russians were pioneers of this in the Olympics, so it's been going on my whole life.

What is cheating? Phelps sleeps in a Darth Vader chamber to give him an edge. That seems just as bad. It just hasn't been banned yet.

By any reports I've seen, including an interview with an ex teammate who admitted to doping and seeing Lance dope, this stuff is more prevalent then we would ever know.

Cheatstrong?

Sorry, I never really cared for him, and his beady eyes give him away.

But he has done good things with his organization, so I hope he continues with that.

This is going to really piss off all those aspiring young cyclists who cut one of their balls off.

It ain't no Breaking Away story, that's for sure!

I read an article in Scientific American (or Popular Science or something) about doping. The data presented showed that ALL pro cyclists simultaneously experienced a sudden boost in performance which cannot be explained by training, equipment, or any other factors, and that since that time ALL pro cyclists have maintained this inexplicable increase in performance. The contention, which was backed up by anonymous and anecdotal evidence, is that ALL pro cyclists are doping--in fact it would be impossible to compete in this sport without the doping, therefore they are ALL doing it by necessity, just to maintain the new "normal" level.

In this regard, since ALL pro cyclists are doping, yes I believe Lance Armstrong, by definition, is part of this group.

I would guess he makes a nice target, due to the guaranteed news coverage. This is a non-story.

The shame is, since the second place cyclists are all from other countries, the US agency can't target them next and demonstrate that everyone down the line is using the same enhancing techniques, whatever it is they do. I've heard crazy stories about things like drawing their own blood, and then infusing it back into themselves the night before the race so they have a greater concentration of red blood cells and oxygenation.

If all the bicyclists rode off a cliff, then it would be OK for anyone to ride their bike off a cliff? Or something.

I don't feel sorry for them. They're going to go after the Head Witch in any witch hunt. Don't get any on ya.