Armstrong ‘Stripped’ of Tour de France Wins

Today, the US Anti-Doping Agency moved to strip cyclist Lance Armstrong of his seven Tour de France titles — and ban him from the sport for life.

The move comes after Armstrong announced he would stop fighting doping charges against him.

The International Cycling Union — which oversees the sport that made Armstrong famous — has yet to rule on the matter.

Armstrong still claims he’s innocent — and never doped.

Brian Holcombe is the editor of Velo Magazine, a publication about bike racing in North America.

In an editorial last night, Holcombe said Armstrong took a position of “martyr” by choosing not to fight the charges from the Anti-Doping Agency.

Holcomb tells anchor Marco Werman it was Armstrong’s only way out.

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Marco Werman: The US Anti-Doping Agency today moved to strip Lance Armstrong of his seven Tour de France titles and ban him for life. That came after Armstrong announced he would stop fighting charges against him. The International Cycling Union, which oversees the sport that made Armstrong famous, has yet to rule on the matter. Armstrong still claims he’s innocent and never doped. Brian Holcombe is the editor of Velonews.com, a publication about bike racing in North America. In an editorial last night Holcombe said Armstrong chose a position of martyrdom by not fighting the charges from the Anti-Doping Agency. Holcombe said it was Armstrong’s only way out.

Brian Holcombe: The decision that he made to avoid arbitration, Marco, is really the only one that he could at this point to try and keep out of evidence that UCI claims to have against him from 10 or more of his former associates from hitting the public eye. This decision allows him to continue in his position as a cancer survivor and a fighter for the cancer community; and it allows him to keep his public image in tact for general sports fans and for millions in the cancer community.

Werman: But don’t you think his decision to not fight back against the US ADA sanctions, isn’t that an admission of guilt?

Holcombe: No, I think it stops short of an admission of guilt, particularly considering the statement that he made last night on his website in which he was continuing to deny having used performance enhancing drugs. He says that he plays by the rules set forward by the International Cycling Union and the Anti-Doping authorities, and he will continue to be defiant, however, he has accepted that lifetime ban.

Werman: I mean not many Americans cared much about competitive cycling until Lance Armstrong came along. What does the sanction mean for cycling in the US and for that matter, more widely? Can the reputation of the sport ever recover?

Holcombe: Well you know, cycling is doing a lot to confront head on this doping history. Cycling is more active in many sports in the doping battle, instituting programs that monitor blood values over time to not only test for doping agents, but test for the after effects of doping. So in the sporting side I believe that cycling is doing a lot to maintain their reputation or rebuild their reputation from a sponsorship side, which is equally important I would say to major[? 02:18] cycling. You know, we are having difficulty at this point. Lance Armstrong was really the only US professional that drove the needle in the general public, and so we are potentially looking at some fall back from this, but it’s yet to be seen what exactly that will look like.

Werman: I mean it’s bound to be destructive for Armstrong’s reputation as a cyclist. For a man to be disgraced like this, does he really still have the same kind of impact on the lives of cancer survivors if he’s not going to challenge charges that he cheated?

Holcombe: You know, I would, as I wrote last night, I would argue that for many he has not been disgraced. I think that he has done so well to stick to his talking points throughout his career, I mean he’s been dogged by allegations of doping since the 1999 Tour de France. He has beat those back with a strong PR campaign for over a decade now and I don’t think that last night’s decision will change much of that in the general sports audience or in the cancer community. I think that more astute cycling fans of course, many of them have already made up their mind and his reputation is damaged further in that community from last night.

Werman: So now that we know that Lance Armstrong is no longer the man on the center podium for the Tour de France in seven tours, who actually won those seven tours?

Holcombe: You know, that is messy business, Marco, because there’s only one rider who finished on the tour podium during Armstrong’s seven year run that has not been convicted or at least heavily implicated in a doping scandal. Yan Ulrich who was a frequent second place finisher to Armstrong during that run is serving his own ban. I don’t know exactly what to expect as far as who the titles will end up with. I think that’s one of the most compelling pieces of this story. How do you hand out removed titles when most of the podium has been implicated in the same scandals that the defamed champion has been?

Werman: Right, I mean how far down the roster do you have to go to find somebody wasn’t doped up, like number 37?

Holcombe: You know that’s hard to say. I mean it would be conjecture at this point to say that for sure, but you know, it could be somewhere outside of the top 10.

Werman: Wow. Brian Holcombe, editor of Velonews.com, thanks so much.

Holcombe: Thank you, Marco.

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