Armstrong to be banned for life

"Say it ain't so, Joe," ....

This is all very sad to me, he must be regarded as one of the greatest athletes of all time.

He was the best thing cycling ever had for the growth and image of the sport. This report no matter what the outcome would have been best served staying buried . The guy has retired, what is achieved other than dragging his legacy down. The sport is not improved, no lesson is learnt from this.

What this sets a precedent for is being warned off/ stripped of titles/ punished if somebody else just *says* they have seen another person taking/ selling/ administering drugs either to themselves or somebody else. this allows for a certain amount of "sour grapes" type anecdotal stories. If this proceding's outcome is the banning and tripping of titles of Lance Armstrong, this will set a very precarious precedent that is going to rock every single sport in thw world, including horse racing.

My personal view is: if you are caught (either with a positive or being in posession) with illegal drugs, you MUST be punished. Illegal drugs/ banned drugs are a different list to "prohibited substances". (Muhtiman costisone is only a prhibited substance ) But, they are times when certain drugs are required to maintain athletic potential, but not to enhance athletic performance. There is no athlete on this earth, in mordern times, that competes without some sort of medical help at some time in their career. It is physically impossible. And unless you trained or coached, or competed yourself, you *cannot* vouch for any athlete being "drug free", because , while you want to believe it is so, you really will *never* know. Just because they/ you haven't been caught, does not mean that it hasn't happened.

What is immensely worrying is the lack of conscience of Armstrong's fellow cyclists. They are willing to sell him to the authorities, in return for not being prosecuted themselves. And yet most of them are just as guilty... Sad day for sport.

scotia Wrote:

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> This is all very sad to me, he must be regarded as
> one of the greatest athletes of all time.


Perhaps now he'll go down as one of the Greatest Cheats - Hopefully those awful yellow bands will also disappear too!!

Most boring so called sport around, they all sound like a bunch of cheats...()

i have rung oakleys this morning for a refund on my "livestrong" sunnies

This is all nonsenses.... How can any english speaking athlete be a cheat????

Only Spanish speaking and their close cousins cheat...

Complete immunity for Armstrong immediately!!!!

He still had to be a helluva athlete to beat all the other dopers!

I can't help wonder,in cycling,when they strip somebody of a title,aren't they just gifting it to another dope artist?

I'm with Greg though...............I wouldn't miss it if it they banned the lot of them

what amazes me is that he got away with it for so long.on another thread there were so many posters defending him i was shocked at the way they attacked me and anyone else who said he was guilty as sin.lol.i wonder if they hv now changed there tune or if they still believe he is innocent.
i still say well done to him for getting away with it for so long and even with the evidence against him he still maintained his innocence.lol.what an amazing human being he is.i wonder if his motive was greed or fame and glory.my take is it was both and he achieved it by cheating other athletes who were clean.
so well done MR LANCE ARMSTRONG you are truly a legend of your sport and humanity.

Lance armstrong is a liar and cheat,im not surprised some racing ppl feel for him,as horse racing is filled with his kind

I don't know how a cyclist could ride six hours a day for 20 odd days several through monstrous maintains and not take something illegal to get back in the saddle the next day.