Tour de France cyclist Lance Armstrong may be stripped of titles

The American faces losing his seven Tour de France titles and being banned from the sport for life...

13:38 25 August 2012

The American faces losing his seven Tour de France titles and being banned from the sport for life, following his refusal to contest drug charges.

 

Armstrong, 40, has already tried to challenge The United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) in court but failed, following the charges set against him this summer.

 

The Texan has always claimed he has never used drugs to aid his performance while competing, and that he has always passed the drugs tests.

 

In a statement the athlete said he is “finished with this nonsense” and no longer wants to continue trying to clear his name.

 

Armstrong explained the reason for him giving up relates to the impact of the USADA investigation, including the effects on his family.

 

“There comes a point in every man's life when he has to say, 'Enough is enough'. For me, that time is now,” he said, as reported by The Telegraph.

 

"Over the past three years, I have been subjected to a two-year federal criminal investigation followed by Travis Tygart's unconstitutional witch hunt.”

 

It is understood that former team-mates Floyd Landis and Tyler Hamilton have both been involved in drug-use charges.

 

A statement on Armstrong’s website reads: "The idea that athletes can be convicted today without positive A and B samples, under the same rules and procedures that apply to athletes with positive tests, perverts the system and creates a process where any begrudged ex-team-mate can open a USADA case out of spite or for personal gain or a cheating cyclist can cut a sweetheart deal for themselves.”

 

USADA Chief Executive Travis Tygart said the same rules apply to all athletes regarding doping charges.

 

In a statement Tygart said: "This is a heart-breaking example of how the win-at-all-costs culture of sport, if left unchecked, will overtake fair, safe and honest competition, but for clean athletes, it is a reassuring reminder that there is hope for future generations to compete on a level playing field without the use of performance-enhancing drugs."

 

As quoted by the Daily Mail, USADA spokeswoman Annie Skinner has responded to the charges: "A loss of all results from August 1, 1998 and a lifetime ban from participating in any sport sanctioned by a signatory to the WADA Code."

 

The sportsman won the Tour de France repeatedly from 1999 to 2005 before announcing his official retirement last year.

 

It is understood the cyclist’s titles are to be cleared from record books.