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Seven-time Tour de France winner Lance Armstrong is again facing charges that he used performance enhancing drugs while competing for those titles. If found to be true, Armstrong faces a lifetime ban from cycling and he could lose all of his cycling victories.
The Washington Post obtained a letter from the US Anti-Doping Agency that said it collected blood samples in 2010-11 that were "fully consistent with blood manipulation including EPO use and/or blood transfusions."
Armstrong's LIVESTRONG Challenge is scheduled to be in Davis on June 24, which is less than two weeks away. Armstrong Tweeted the following statement Wednesday:
I have been notified that USADA, an organization largely funded by taxpayer dollars but governed only by self-written rules, intends to again dredge up discredited allegations dating back more than 16 years to prevent me from competing as a triathlete and try and strip me of the seven Tour de France victories I earned. These are the very same charges and the same witnesses that the Justice Department chose not to pursue after a two-year investigation. These charges are baseless, motivated by spite and advanced through testimony bought and paid for by promises of anonymity and immunity. Although USADA alleges a wide-ranging conspiracy extended over more than 16 years, I am the only athlete it has chosen to charge. USADA’s malice, its methods, its star-chamber practices, and its decision to punish first and adjudicate later all are at odds with our ideals of fairness and fair play.
I have never doped, and, unlike many of my accusers, I have competed as an endurance athlete for 25 years with no spike in performance, passed more than 500 drug tests and never failed one. That USADA ignores this fundamental distinction and charges me instead of the admitted dopers says far more about USADA, its lack of fairness and this vendetta than it does about my guilt or innocence.
So do you think it is fair to continue to go after Armstrong on these charges or is it time to let it go?
Kristi Reed
8:46 am on Friday, June 15, 2012
I really can't see going after someone years after the event. If tests at the time of the event showed no drug use, then that should be the end of it. It sounds as if their whole testing/monitoring system could use some revisions.
Evelyn Smith
3:52 pm on Friday, June 15, 2012
Yes they should go after him, they have taken awards from other athletes for doping, Lance Armstrong is NO different, If you dope it proves that your ability to win top awards does not belong to you.
Ben
9:13 am on Friday, June 15, 2012
He passed the Drug test several time before, showed no Drugs in system, He should keep his title
Peter
9:46 am on Friday, June 15, 2012
Although I don't approve of doping, I think that what is past is past. Guys like Barry Bonds, Roger Clemmens and Lance Armstrong should be left alone. The fact is they were competing against guys who were also doping so in essence they were playing on an even field. As Kristi says improve the testing for the present athletes.
Andy Hall
9:48 am on Friday, June 15, 2012
Let's see, one government agency has already spent thousands and thousands , if not millions, of dollars and decided to not persue this issue any longer. Now another agency with heavy government subsidy is going to rehash this matter. At what cost to the citizens of the United States? This kind of reckless, non-accountability with money is one of the reasons so many people are feed up with our government. It's been investigated, leave it alone. If you have nothing better to do with your budgeted funds, leave them in the bank. Or better still return them to the people that allocated them to you.
Webkat Design
3:51 pm on Friday, June 15, 2012
I didn't hear anybody cry foul when in 2005, Tiger Woods was celebrated for winning golf's biggest tournament, the Masters, with the help of superior vision he acquired through laser surgery. That surgery gave him 20/15 vision. Better vision than normal people and better vision than 90% of the field.
D.
5:23 pm on Friday, June 15, 2012
He has been tested, retested, and tested again; and they have found nothing so far. Leave the man alone and let him compete!!! And by the way, can you clarify exactly what Tiger Woods has to do with the question at hand? Just wondering....
Jennifer Patton
8:54 am on Saturday, June 16, 2012
Lance was tested more frequently than any other cyclist during all his Tours ....first they were looking for chemicals to boost his blood after his cancer treatment and recovery. In the last 4 Tours he was tested nearly every other day. He never failed a single test. He's been able to discredit the people who've made accusations against him, so now the anti-doping agency is withholding the names of "witnesses" who say they saw him doping. And it has been shown there's a money trail from French sources to keep up this absurd, continuous effort to prove he couldn't possibly have won on his own merits. The simple truth is Lance is a superb athlete with more discipline than most, the US Postal and Discovery Channel teams were the best group of athletes, coaches, trainers ever assembled, and they out rode everyone else. Now, years after his last Tour, they are somehow finding "tainted samples" that prove he was cheating? Lance is aggressive, competitive, manipulative and driven; but not dishonest, or stupid. USADA however, is both. I hope Lance fights this until he can turn this group inside out.
don foster
9:40 am on Saturday, June 16, 2012
First: If Lance took EPO it is one of the most detectable drugs EVER! He did not.......no one in the spotlight as much as he was would be that stupid.
Second: If he did "blood dope" and used his own blood (which has been unproven ) it is not detectable.
Third: If my tax dollars are paying for this .......someone is going pay....and it won't be Lance it will be who ever put forth this investgation!
Terence Davidson
11:23 pm on Saturday, June 16, 2012
Regardless of whether or not Armstrong himself doped the fact that his past teammates have come out and admitted their guilt means that he benefited from performance enhancing drugs when winning his titles. You can't win the Tour without good domestiques, and his were on EPO. Here's an article that goes into this in more detail: http://youkantbeserious.com/2012/06/14/it-doesnt-matter-whether-or-not-he-doped-armstrong-should-lose-his-titles/
TC
3:00 pm on Monday, June 18, 2012
It's the only way drug testing will be taken seriously and the sport will be clean in the future! You have to go after him and his team.
Mark L Henderson
11:15 am on Thursday, June 21, 2012
Just like the Edward trail and Clemons trail, please stop wasting my money!!!!!
Mark M
2:42 pm on Thursday, June 21, 2012
In fact Lance has tested positive. The UCI is corrupt. Lance paid them off. Anyone who believes you can win the TdF after cancer with your testosterone production take away by half is delusional. Those of us who have followed cycling for decades, long before the general public knew who Lance was knows that he's a doper. Prior to cancer he could barely finish the TdF. Until there is outside, independent testing away from the UCI Cartel there will always be doping in major cycling. You simply cannot believe that winners of the major tours are clean anymore. Sad as that is to admit. The real problem is our youth is beginning to accept it as normal. We're sliding down a slippery slope.