Lance Armstrong fight against USADA

[genkk]

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UCI urges USADA to lift doubts over Armstrong case

PARIS (Reuters) - The International Cycling Union (UCI) has criticized the United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) for a delay in Lance Armstrong's doping case, saying it is unusual that evidence is still being gathered after a person has been found guilty.
USADA, in response, accused the UCI of "attempting to undermine and question the substance of our case."
The 40-year-old Armstrong was stripped of his record seven Tour de France wins last month and handed a lifetime ban by USADA after indicating he would not challenge charges that he had doped throughout his career. He has always denied doping.
UCI must ratify the sanction and USADA said on Wednesday the file case and reasoned decision will be sent to the UCI and the World Anti-Doping Agency by October 15.
USADA boss Travis Tygart had said earlier that he expected the report to be sent by the end of the month.
"The UCI had no reason to assume that a full case file did not exist but USADA's continued failure to produce the decision is now a cause for concern," Pat McQuaid, the president of cycling's governing body, said in a statement on Thursday.
"It is over a month since USADA sanctioned Lance Armstrong. We thought that USADA were better prepared before initiating these proceedings," he added.
McQuaid had previously said he had no intention of contesting USADA's decision, unless the UCI was given serious reasons to do so.
The UCI noted in its statement that reports were suggesting USADA was still gathering evidence and has yet to complete its case file.
"It seems that it would have been more useful for USADA to have used the time of the Tour de France, the Olympic Games and the Road World Championships to prepare their case in full rather than to make announcements," the UCI said.
"It is at very least unusual that USADA would still be gathering evidence against a person after it has found that person guilty.
"The UCI assumes that the reasons for any difficulty in putting the evidence together will be explained in USADA's decision."
The world cycling body also criticized USADA for not having informed it directly about the delays.
"The UCI... has learnt of the reported delays through the media and not by any official communication from USADA," it said.
"The sooner the UCI receives the decision and case file the sooner the UCI can provide its response."
USADA's Tygart denied his agency had not been in touch with UCI.
"It is also troubling that they would claim to have had no contact with us which is inaccurate," the USADA chief executive said in a statement to Reuters.
"As they know we will be providing them the ‘reasoned decision' no later than October 15 through the process and at that time the questions contained in their publicly released statement today will be answered."
(Writing by Gregory Blachier; Editing by Mark Meadows and Justin Palmer)

[genkk]

nag pataka ra ni ug yaw yaw si F. Landis..

UCI hails defamation case win vs cyclist Landis

GENEVA (AP) -- The International Cycling Union said a Swiss court ruling has prohibited Floyd Landis from repeating claims that UCI leaders corruptly protected Lance Armstrong from a doping case.
''The judgment upholds and protects the integrity of the UCI and its presidents,'' the world cycling body said Wednesday in a statement released with copies of the court document.
In a Sept. 26 ruling on the defamation case published Wednesday by the UCI, Landis is ordered to pay UCI President Pat McQuaid and predecessor Hein Verbruggen $10,667 each, plus legal costs totaling $4,900.
The ruling forbids Landis from stating that ''Patrick (Pat) McQuaid and/or Henricus (Hein) Verbruggen have concealed cases of doping, received money for doing so, have accepted money from Lance Armstrong to conceal a doping case, have protected certain racing cyclists (and) concealed cases of doping.''
Landis is also required to pay to announce the judgment in the Wall Street Journal, French sports daily L'Equipe and several cycling websites. The daily De Volksrant in Verbruggen's native Netherlands and Geneva daily Le Temps are also included on the court's list.
Landis, who was stripped of the 2006 Tour de France title for doping, was sued in the district court in Vevey - near the UCI's headquarters in Aigle - after telling a German television station in November 2010 that the UCI protected some star riders from doping claims.
Landis has been given 10 days from receiving the court ruling to appeal, after which ''the judgment shall become final and binding.''
The document, headlined as a ''Judgment by Default,'' stated that he could faces fines for failing to comply. However, Landis was not an active party in the civil court proceedings and it remains unclear how the orders would be enforced.
The same court is scheduled to hear another defamation case brought by the UCI against Irish journalist Paul Kimmage on Dec. 12.
Kimmage, a former Tour de France rider and anti-doping campaigner, has claimed the UCI and its leaders protected Armstrong from an alleged positive test for the blood-boosting hormone EPO at the 2001 Tour of Switzerland.
The UCI sued Kimmage last month after he made comments to L'Equipe and published an interview with Landis in British newspaper The Sunday Times.
''False accusations are unacceptable and unlawful, and the UCI will continue to defend itself against all such accusations,'' the governing body said Wednesday.
An American cycling website, cyclismas.com, launched a defense fund to help pay Kimmage's legal fees. On Wednesday, it had pledges of more than $50,000.

[genkk]

many news about Armstrong surfaced....

Eleven teammates turn on Lance Armstrong, testify that he was part of 'sophisticated' doping program
The United States Anti-Doping Agency has charged that Armstrong is the centerpiece of, in the agency's words, "the most sophisticated, professionalized and successful doping program that sport has ever seen."
Eleven former teammates of Armstrong's are among 26 people who provided sworn testimony that the seven-time Tour de France winner used performance-enhancing drugs, encouraged others to do so and helped maintain the secrecy of the program.
"The [United States Postal Service] Team doping conspiracy was professionally designed to groom and pressure athletes to use dangerous drugs, to evade detection, to ensure its secrecy and ultimately gain an unfair competitive advantage through superior doping practices," the agency said in a press release. "A program organized by individuals who thought they were above the rules and who still play a major and active role in sport today."
[Related: USADA's entire 202-page report]
Armstrong has consistently denied ever using any form of illegal drugs in the course of his historic career. In August he quit his fight against USADA, saying via statement, 'There comes a point in every man's life when he has to say, 'Enough is enough.' "
USADA assembled a thousand-plus-page paper trail of interviews, financial statements and lab results. Teammates who testified include George Hincapie, Tyler Hamilton, Floyd Landis and Frankie Andreu. The report, the agency contends, is "conclusive and undeniable proof that brings to the light of day for the first time this systemic, sustained and highly professionalized team-run doping conspiracy."
Armstrong has not commented publicly on the report. His attorney sent a letter to USADA Tuesday which states that USADA acted as "prosecutor, judge, jury, appellate court and executioner."
The testimony is a devastating blow to the legacy of one of the most decorated athletes in all of sports. Armstrong won the Tour de France seven consecutive times and is a cancer survivor. The Lance Armstrong Foundation, through its LiveStrong outreach, has raised more than $325 million to spread awareness and assistance to victims of cancer through the sale of more than 72 million iconic yellow bracelets.
But Armstrong has also been the most visible face of a sport consistently tainted by allegations of doping. He had for years appeared to ride above the charges that brought down many of his fellow riders, including Landis and Hamilton. But as sporting agencies began to voice concerns about Armstrong, he fought back vigorously and consistently, contesting the sampling procedures, the handling of his samples and even the motivations and objectivity of the testing agencies.
USADA began to zero in on Armstrong in 2012. In June, the agency filed official charges of doping and drug trafficking, suspending him from competition in both cycling and triathlons. Two months later, after years of court action and public denials, Armstrong decided to stop his fight against USADA.
As a result, USADA served Armstrong with a lifetime ban from sports that fall under its direction and stripped him of his seven Tour de France victories, though there is a difference of opinion as to who has jurisdiction over that process. UCI (International Cycling Union) insists it does, not USADA. The Tour itself will wait for the UCI's verdict on the validity of USADA's case. For the record, Armstrong is still listed as the winner between 1999 and 2005 on the Tour de France website.
Armstrong's problems aren't limited to the sporting arena. While a federal criminal investigation against Armstrong has been dropped, a Department of Justice investigation continues. It questions whether Armstrong and his teammates fraudulently used taxpayer money in the form of U.S. Postal Service sponsorship dollars to perpetuate the illegal doping program.

[genkk]

No winner for past Tours if UCI strips Armstrong

PARIS (AP) -- The Tour de France will have no official winner for the seven races from 1999-2005 if Lance Armstrong is stripped of his victories by the International Cycling Union.
In an interview with The Associated Press on Friday, Tour director Christian Prudhomme called the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency's report on Armstrong ''damning.'' It raises doubts, he said, about ''a system and an era.''
Tour officials are still waiting on the UCI's decision on whether to go along with USADA's decision to ban Armstrong for life and erase his racing results. A spokesman for the sport's governing body, Enrico Carpani, said it was ''too early to say'' what would happen. The UCI must decide by the end of the month whether to appeal USADA's ruling.
UCI President Pat McQuaid declined to comment on USADA's report but defended his organization's efforts to catch drug cheats.
The report cost Armstrong's former team manager, Johan Bruyneel, his job as general manager of RadioShack Nissan Trek. The team said Friday the decision was taken by ''mutual agreement'' and that Bruyneel ''can no longer direct the team in an efficient and comfortable way.''
The Belgian has his own legal battle with USADA and has opted for arbitration to fight charges that he led doping programs for Armstrong's teams.
If Armstrong's Tour victories are not awarded to other riders, that would leave a gaping seven-year black hole in Tour de France record books. It would also mark a shift in how Tour organizers treated similar cases in the past.
When Alberto Contador was stripped of his 2010 Tour victory for a doping violation, organizers held a ceremony to award the race winner's yellow jersey to Luxembourg's Andy Schleck. In 2006, Oscar Pereiro was awarded the victory and a place in the record books after the doping disqualification of American rider Floyd Landis.
Prudhomme wouldn't address the differences in approach.
McQuaid said inadequacies in the anti-doping system were failing to catch drug-using athletes. The UCI tests athletes repeatedly for doping, he said, but the federation can do little if the results are negative. He insisted the anti-doping system had improved since the 1998-2009 period of Armstrong's career examined in the report.
For Frankie Andreu, the report offered relief. A former Armstrong teammate, he had previously admitted doping.
''We're kind of getting to the end of this, where we can have some closure on this,'' Andreu said. ''There's more riders, more people out there, talking about what happened in the past.''

[genkk]

Armstrong might take lie detector test, says lawyer

PARIS (Reuters) - Lance Armstrong may take a lie detector test to clear his name from doping allegations, his lawyer said on Sunday, even though he did not expect the result would change the public's opinion of the American cyclist.
Armstrong is set to lose his record seven Tour de France titles after the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) published a 1,000 page report on Wednesday that said the retired American took part in and organized doping on his way to his unrivalled success on the Tour.
Armstrong has always denied he took banned substances during his glittering career but refused to challenge the USADA charges against him.
His lawyer Tim Herman told the BBC's Radio 5 Sportsweek on Sunday that the Texan cyclist may take a lie detector test to prove his innocence.
"We might do that, you never know," Herman said.
Asked why he Armstrong would not commit to taking the test, Herman said that he didn't think it would make a difference.
"He's moved on. His name is never going to be clear with anyone beyond what it is today," said Herman.
The world governing body for cycling, the UCI, are yet to rule on USADA's report.
Armstrong, one of the world's most famous athletes who is well known for his cancer-fighting charity work, had said he was a victim of a witch hunt and preferred to focus on his Livestrong foundation.
"People are fans, most of the people that I've talked to, this is their opinion, it is, 'we don't care whether he did or he didn't'," said Herman, who added he would like the 26 witnesses who testified against Armstrong to take the lie detector test as well.
"A lie detector test properly administered, I'm a proponent of that frankly, just personally," he said.
"I would not challenge the results of a lie detector test with good equipment, properly administered by a qualified technician. That's a pretty simple answer."
(Reporting by Julien Pretot; Editing by Patrick Johnston)

[mokiloo]

As a lifetime achievement achievement---battling cancer, excelling in the sport, inspiring people giving them the "be strong, live strong" attitude, then I salute him

But still there are strict rules to be heeded in some sports commissions.
So I guess he also knew where he stands, he knew what he achieved as well as where he failed. No one is perfect!

[genkk]

Armstrong steps down from charity; Nike drops sponsorship

(Reuters) - Lance Armstrong has stepped down as chairman of the cancer charity he founded, Livestrong, after U.S. anti-doping officials issued a scathing report detailing his use of performance-enhancing drugs for years as one of the world's premier cyclists, the foundation said on Wednesday.
Separately, one of his main corporate sponsors, Nike Inc., said it was ending its sponsorship of Armstrong.
"To spare the foundation any negative effects as a result of controversy surrounding my cycling career, I will conclude my chairmanship," Armstrong said in a statement.
Armstrong is set to lose his record seven Tour de France titles after the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency published a 1,000-page report last week that said the now-retired American took part in and organized an elaborate and sophisticated doping scheme on his way to his unrivalled success on the Tour.
Armstrong has always denied he took banned substances during his glittering career but refused to challenge the USADA charges against him.
Armstrong founded the Lance Armstrong Foundation in 1997 after being diagnosed with testicular cancer in late 1996. The foundation launched Livestrong in 2003 to provide support services to cancer patients.
Meanwhile, Nike, in reversing its earlier stand in support of Armstrong, said it could no longer ignore the evidence of his illicit behavior as a professional cyclist.
"Due to the seemingly insurmountable evidence that Lance Armstrong participated in doping and misled Nike for more than a decade, it is with great sadness that we have terminated our contract with him," the company said in a statement. "Nike does not condone the use of illegal performance enhancing drugs in any manner."
(Reporting by Dan Burns; Editing by Jackie Frank

[genkk]

paita.. kolata maayo akong IDOL
we'll wait what UCI has to say if Lance will be stripped off hi 7 Tour de France Titles
expect more bad news to come....

[mokiloo]

^^^Idolize him as a person nalang with breakthrough accomplishment and noble intentions
forget the sports bureaucracy kay naa gyud balaod nga dapat sundon
Well at least he has proven man pud lots of things and inspired millions...and that includes you... and you believed in him diba?
So what could be more important than that?

[slakker]

turns out he is the biggest drug cheat in the history of sports... even Nike paid $500,000.00 to cover up past positive drug tests...
they should take out the letter "V" in LIVESTRONG...