Lance Armstrong in the Tour de France circa 2010.

In 1996, Lance Armstrong fought the biggest fight he would ever face.  At 25, he was diagnosed with testicular cancer and given almost no chance at surviving treatments.  Somehow, he lived, and went on to become one of the best cyclists of his generation.  Before the cancer, he was a world champion; after the cancer, he became a legend, winning an unprecedented 7 Tour de France titles and dominating the world’s premier road race.  Now, all that is gone, swept away by the multitude of charges filed against him by the USADS.  Lance Armstrong is giving up his fight against the US Anti-Doping Agency, meaning all his accomplishments and prize money from 1998 onward will be forfeit.  He will also receive a lifetime ban from all World Anti-Doping Code sports, including the Olympics, cycling, and triathlon (his newest love).

“There comes a point in every man’s life when he has to say, ‘Enough is enough,’” Armstrong said in a statement.  ”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.”

Armstrong will lose his 7 Tour de France titles, his 2000 bronze medal at the Sydney Olympics, and every title and all prize money he won from August 1998 onward.  Like Floyd Landis and Alberto Contador, Armstrong will be losing the things he worked hardest for; after a decade of trying to nail him, they got him and will be sweeping him from the record books.  Not that it really matters; every top level cyclist on the tour has been caught doping at one point or another and after they sit out a year or two, they come back and resume winning.  The cycle repeats until they retire.  That’s what cyclists do.  If Armstrong doped for a decade and avoided getting caught the entire time, then good for him; he’s obviously better at cheating than the rest of his crooked competition.

Tags: usada, lance armstrong, lance armstrong doping charges, lance armstrong stops fighting doping charges, tour de france, bronze medal, lance armstrong stops doping fight, lance armstrong doping, performance enhancing drugs, peds, lance armstrong doping charges, united states anti-doping administration, world anti-doping code, sports, professional cycling, cycling

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