Lance Armstrong concedes 7 Tour victories in doping scandal

The evidence against Armstrong must have been significant for him to not even fight. Armstrong was called a lot of things but quitter would not have been on the list. Of course, a doper wasn't on the list for many worshipers either but that now appears to be the case following his lack of response to the US Anti-Doping Agency. Whether the US Anti-Doping Agency can actually take away any victories or money is up for debate, but failing to even provide a response speaks volumes.

Armstrong will no doubt continue to have his supporters at home, who somehow believe that because he passed doping tests, he is innocent. He will still help sell plenty of yellow jerseys and cycling gear that raises money for a good cause. Some supporters will even defend him by saying that "everyone does it in cycling" which isn't incorrect. The podium (top three in the Tour de France) was littered with cheaters during the Armstrong years, with Armstrong being one of the only cyclists to either not get caught or admit to doping.

NY Times:

Armstrong’s decision, according to the World Anti-Doping Code, means he will be stripped of his seven Tour titles, the bronze medal he won at the 2000 Olympics and all other titles, awards and money he won from August 1998 forward.

It also means he will be barred for life from competing, coaching or having any official role with any Olympic sport or other sport that follows the World Anti-Doping Code. “It’s a sad day for all of us who love sport and our athletic heroes,” Travis Tygart, chief executive of the United States Anti-Doping Agency, said. “It’s yet another heartbreaking example of how the win-at-all-costs culture, if left unchecked, will overtake fair, safe and honest competition.”

As in many other high-profile doping cases — including that of the Olympic sprinter Marion Jones and other athletes involved in the sprawling Bay Area Laboratory Co-operative case, known as Balco — Tygart and the antidoping agency were basing their case not on a positive drug test but rather on other supporting evidence. Armstrong seized on that in his statement.

Many dopers have had the money and resources to stay ahead of the testing system. There was certainly one glaring example from the recent Olympics in London where an athlete rose out of nowhere to crush a record yet still passed the drug tests.

If Armstrong honestly felt that strongly about his own "clean" record, he would have continued the fight, but he didn't. In the face of ten eyewitnesses and a list of former teammates who were prepared to speak about his doping, he backed down. He sounds like a lawyer when he continues to blather on about his tests because anyone who follows sports knows how bad the testing system is. Armstrong can continue to go on about his clean tests but it now looks like even more of a pathetic joke than it did when he started that defense years ago.