Lance Armstrong stripped of tour de france titles

Interesting..

http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/mo...icle-1.1143295

I don't know how I feel about that. Yes, people accused him of doping multiple times, but from what I've read (and I could be wrong) he never actually failed a single doping test.

I've a supervisor who is from Alsace-Lorraine and has actually watched the racers in the Tour de France pass by and he is of the belief that every single one of those cyclists are on a drug of some type.

From what I understand that is pretty much the case. And also, from what I understand, they get away with it by utilizing blood transfusions.

That seems really insane to win a bicycle race.

I concur, but the thing of it is the French hate that Lance Armstrong the American kept winning the Tour de France, so they wanted to find any means necessary to get him. If they found a way to do it, they could get every single athlete who's been in the Tour.

They don't really have conclusive evidence that he cheated, but they can show that over the course of many tests he had had blood transfusions, which is indicative of blood tampering. And most likely most or all of the other athletes are doing the same thing. I don't know that I would necessarily agree that they went after Armstrong because of some grudge between the US and France. It seems more likely that they would go after him because he's a prime target for making an example of. It's pretty much accepted as common knowledge that most/all of the athletes cheat, and that's an unfortunate fact in any sport. It leads to kids feeling like they have to do the same thing to be competitive in their sport, even if they have natural talent. Going after a target like Armstrong is a good first step to changing that, because he's idolized by many people and a number of those people will perhaps change their opinions or at least become passionate about the topic as a result.

Beyond that, the organization that is charging him probably needs to somehow justify their existence, and are also most likely attempting to get their name on the map. In other words, publicity.

I found it ridiculous that they stripped him because he got tired of fighting. What happened to innocent till proven guilty. The whole story seems like a bunch of people pointing a finger at him and being like "The only reason you'd have blood transfusions is you were cheating". I know I'm playing devil's advocate, but it just seems a bit ridiculous to chase after someone until they just give up.

On top of that, even if all the other athletes are cheating, it still means he's better then all of them. If everyone is cheating, it is still a matter of who is better because everyone has the same unfair advantage.

It was his choice to give up. He could have chosen not to. He could have had his day in court. He most likely chose not to because he knew what the outcome would be.