What a dismal fall from the dizzy heights of glory.The great legend of cycling and an icon of endurance ,the man who fought cancer to conquer the Alps with sheer courage and doggedness ,the epitome of courage and conviction stands tainted and mute.
Lance Armstrong is destined to be doomed to oblivion with all medals being stripped and stands lifetime ban with the loss of unprecedented seven straight Tour de France titles and his Olympic bronze.
The US Postal cycling team, led by Lance Armstrong, have been accused of running the most 'successful doping program that sport has ever seen' by USADA. After a decade of staunch denials ,allegations that the process that the anti-doping agency followed is "an unconstitutional government funded witch hunt” ,Lance Armstrong, the most accomplished athletes in cycling history, ended his fight against charges of doping.
The 1999 to 2005 Tours de France will be forever without a winner .Tour director Christian Prudhomme has said the race will go along with whatever UCI decides and will have no official winners for those years.
The United States Anti-Doping Agency alleged him as one of the ringleaders of systematic doping on his Tour-winning teams.The USADA charged him with six offences covering the use of banned substances, the trafficking of drugs, the administration of drugs to team-mates intimidating the witnesses,and "tarnish reputations, lie to hearing panels and the press and do whatever was necessary to conceal the truth,” The agency described the revelations as “more extensive than any previously revealed in professional sports history”.
On January 27, a day after he left for the US, Yuvraj Singh tweeted, "Reading Lance Armstrong's book it's not about the bike! I'm sure it will motivate me and pull me throu this time! Livestrong yuvstrong!"
Lans was not just a Champion cyclist to millions of Yuvis's,but he inspired them with his unrelenting and exemplary fight against cancer. Lance Armstrong succumbed before the doping charges that have followed him for a decade.“There comes a point in every man's life when he has to say, ‘Enough is enough’,” Armstrong said in a statement. “For me, that time is now”.
26 witnesses including 11 riders from the United States Postal Service team testified to USADA against Armstrong in a doping case .USADA released the findings of a two-year investigation accusing Armstrong of using a pot-pore of banned substances and blood transfusions. The doping program me was the brainchild of disgraced Italian doctor, Michele Ferrari, and Armstrong would travel across Europe during and before races to have blood transfusions.
International Cycling Union (UCI) president Pat McQuaid said the USADA’s report had been accepted and they would not appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport. “Lance Armstrong has no place in cycling and he deserves to be forgotten in cycling,” Mr. McQuaid said at a news conference. "He deserves to be forgotten."
How poor Yumi must have felt hearing the episode.
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