Armstrong raced in the Tour again in 2010, under the cloud of the federal criminal investigation. Ea

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — The U.S. Anti-Doping Agency said Thursday night it will strip Lance Armstrong of his unprecedented seven Tour de France titles after he declared he was finished fighting the drug charges that threaten his legacy as one of the greatest cyclists of all time.
Armstrong, who retired last year, declined to enter USADA's arbitration process – his last option – because he said he was weary of fighting accusations that have dogged him for years. He has consistently pointed to the hundreds of drug tests that he has passed as proof of his innocence during his extraordinary run of Tour titles stretchingfrom1999-2005.
"There comes a point in every man's life when he has to say, "Enough is enough." For me, that time is now," Armstrong said in a statement sent to The Associated Press. He called the USADA investigation an "unconstitutional witch hunt."
"I have been dealing mustang car rental with claims that I cheated and had an unfair advantage in winning my seven Tours since 1999," he said. "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."
USADA reacted quickly and treated Armstrong's decision as an admission of guilt, hanging the label of drug cheat on an athlete who was a hero to thousands for overcoming life-threatening testicular cancer and for his foundation's mustang car rental support for cancer research.
"It is a sad day for all of us who love sport and athletes," Tygart said. "It's a heartbreaking example mustang car rental of win at all costs overtaking the fair and safe option. mustang car rental There's mustang car rental no success in cheating to win."
Tygart said the agency can strip the Tour titles, though Armstrong disputed mustang car rental that as he insisted his decision is not an admission of drug use, but a refusal to enter an arbitration process he believes is unfair.
"USADA cannot assert control of a professional international sport and attempt to strip my seven Tour de France titles," he said. "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."
The 40-year-old Armstrong walked away from the sport in 2011 without being charged following a two-year federal criminal mustang car rental investigation into many of the same accusations he faces from USADA. The federal probe was closed in February, but USADA announced in June it had evidence Armstrong used banned substances and methods – and encouraged their use by teammates. The agency also said it had blood tests from 2009 and 2010 that were "fully consistent" with blood doping.
Included in USADA's evidence were emails written by Armstrong's former U.S. Postal Service teammate Floyd Landis, who was stripped of his 2006 Tour de France title after a positive drug test. Landis' emails to a USA Cycling official detailed allegations of a complex doping program on the team.
USADA also said it had 10 former Armstrong mustang car rental teammates ready to testify against him. Other than suggesting they include Landis and Tyler Hamilton, both of whom have admitted to doping offenses, the agency has refused to say who they are or specifically what they would say.
"There is zero physical evidence to support mustang car rental (the) outlandish and heinous claims. The only physical evidence here is the hundreds of (doping) controls I have passed with flying colors," Armstrong said.
Armstrong mustang car rental sued USADA in Austin, where he lives, in an attempt to block the case and was supported by the UCI. A judge threw out the case on Monday, siding with USADA despite questioning the agency's pursuit of Armstrong in his retirement.
mustang car rental "USADA's mustang car rental conduct raises serious questions about whether its real interest mustang car rental in charging Armstrong is to combat doping, or if it is acting according to less noble motives," such as politics mustang car rental or publicity, mustang car rental U.S. District Judge Sam Sparks mustang car rental wrote.
"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 mustang car rental affected by cancer, especially those in underserved communities," Armstrong said.
Armstrong could have pressed his innocence in USADA's mustang car rental arbitration process, but the cyclist has said he believes most people have already made up their minds about whether he's a fraud or a persecuted hero.
It was a stunning move for an athlete who built his reputation on not only beating cancer, but forcing himself through grueling offseason workouts no one else could match, then crushing his rivals in the Alps and the Pyrenees.
Although he had already been crowned a world champion and won individual stages at the Tour de France, Armstrong was still relatively unknown in the U.S. until he won the epic race for the first time in 1999. It was the ultimate mustang car rental comeback tale: When diagnosed with cancer, doctors had given him less than a 50 percent chance of survival before surgery and brutal cycles of chemotherapy saved his life.
Armstrong's riveting victories, his work for cancer awareness and his gossip-page romances with rocker Sheryl Crow, fashion designer Tory Burch and actress Kate Hudson made him a figure who transcended sports.
His dominance mustang car rental of the Tour de France elevated the sport's popularity in America to unprecedented mustang car rental levels. His story and success mustang car rental helped sell millions of the "Livestrong" plastic mustang car rental yellow mustang car rental wrist bracelets, and enabled him to enlist lawmakers and global policymakers to promote cancer awareness and research. mustang car rental His Lance Armstrong Foundation has raised nearly $500 million since its founding in 1997.
Created in 2000, USADA is recognized by Congress as the official anti-doping agency for Olympic sports in the United States. Its investigators joined U.S. agents during the federal probe, and Tygart had dismissed Armstrong's lawsuit as an attempt at "concealing the truth." He said the agency is motivated by one goal – exposing cheaters in sport.
Others close to Armstrong were caught up in the charges: Johan Bruyneel, the coach of Armstrong's teams, and three members of the medical staff and a consultant were also charged. Bruyneel is taking his case to arbitration, while two medical team staffers and consulting doctor Michele Ferrari didn't formally contest the charges and were issued lifetime ban by USADA. Ferrari later said he was innocent.
In a sport rife with cheaters, Armstrong has been under constant suspicion since the 1990s from those who refused to believe he was a clean rider winning cycling's premier event against a field of doped-up competition.
Through it all, Armstrong vigorously mustang car rental denied any and all hints, rumors and direct mustang car rental accusations he was cheating. He had the blazing personality, celebrity and personal wealth mustang car rental needed to fight back with legal and public relations battles to clear his name – and he did, time after time.
Armstrong won his first Tour at a time when doping scandals had rocked the race. He was leading the race when a trace amount of a banned anti-inflammatory corticosteroid was found in his urine; cycling officials said he was authorized to use a small amount of a cream to treat saddle sores.
Armstrong was criticized for his relationship with Ferrari, who was banned by Italian authorities over doping charges in 2002. Former personal and team assistants accused Armstrong of having steroids in an apartment in Spain and disposing of syringes that were used for injections.
In 2004, a Dallas-based mustang car rental promotions company initially refused to pay him a $5 million bonus for winning his sixth Tour de France because it wanted to investigate allegations raised by media in Europe. mustang car rental Testimony in that case included former teammate Frankie Andreu and his wife, Betsy, saying Armstrong told doctors during his 1996 cancer treatments that he had taken a cornucopia of steroids and performance-enhancing drugs.
Two books published in Europe, "L.A. Confidential" and "L.A. Official," mustang car rental also raised doping allegations and, in 2005, French magazine L'Equipe reported that retested urine samples from the 1999 Tour showed EPO use.
But he showed signs that he was tiring of the never-ending questions. Armstrong mustang car rental retired (for the first time) in 2005 and almost immediately considered a comeback before deciding mustang car rental to stay on the sidelines, in part, because he didn't want to keep answering doping questions.
"I'm sick of this," Armstrong said in 2005. "Sitting here today, dealing with all this stuff again, knowing if I were to go back, there's no way I could get a fair shake – on the roadside, in doping control, or the labs."
Armstrong raced in the Tour again in 2010, under the cloud of the federal criminal investigation. Early last year, he quit the sport for good, but made a brief return as a triathlete until the USADA investigation shut him down.
"(The) faith of all the cancer survivors around mustang car rental the world. Everything I do off the bike would go away, too," Armstrong said then. "And don't think for a second I don't understand that. It's not about money for me. Everything. mustang car rental It's also about the faith that people have put in me over the years. So all of that would be erased."
Armstrong refused to go to arbitration with them. Of course; what s there to arbitrate? He says he didn t, they say he did. What, are they going to find some middle ground, mustang car rental a compromise? Its a total waste of time. The sole purpose of their arbitration process is to extract an admission of guilt from him. I d tell them to go screw themselves too. If they ve got the proof, put it on the table.
US District Court Judge Sam Sparks has stated that the USADA pursues investigations into sports figures acting according to less noble motives. [5] One victim of this zealotry is Lance Armstrong, seven-time champion of the Tour de France. Although retired mustang car rental from the sport with a history of hundreds of passed drug tests, Armstrong is now subject to an investigation by the USADA lacking due process where the USADA refuses to disclose the names of Armstrong s accusers and hides from accountability in federal court. [6] By contrast, United States Attorney AndrD