The International Cycling Union announced Monday, Oct. 22, 2012, that it will ban Lance Armstrong for life and strip him from his 7 Tour de France titles stating that “There is no place in cycling for Lance Armstrong.”
The agency announced it would ban Armstrong from the sport for life and strip him of his results dating from 1998. The decision wiped out 14 years of his career. The announcement was the final hurdle and is now an official epic downfall with Lance Armstrong turning into a virtual outcast in just a matter of days.
ABC News said as his reputation, sponsorships and influence have fallen off a cliff, the silence surrounding his methods have begun to crack.
The fallout from Armstrong’s doping accusations has forced yet another sponsor to jump ship. This time, it is Oakley. Last week Armstrong stepped down as chairman of the cancer charity Livestrong. Then he was stripped of his sponsorships with Nike and Anheuser-Busch.
“When Lance joined our family many years ago, he was a symbol of possibility,” the company said in a statement. “We are deeply saddened by the outcome, but look forward with hope to athletes and teams of the future who will rekindle that inspiration by racing clean, fair and honest. We believe the Livestrong Foundation has been a positive force in the lives of many affected by cancer and, at this time, Oakley will continue to support its noble goals.”
Armstrong’s continued fallout from doping allegations are sure to bring the athlete more problems in the future.
Former Armstrong team mates at his U.S. Postal and Discovery Channel outfits, where he won his seven straight Tour titles from 1999 to 2005, testified against him and were given reduced bans by the American authorities.
Armstrong, once widely accepted as one of the greatest cyclists of all time given he fought back from cancer to dominate the sport, has always denied doping and says he has never failed a doping test.
Armstrong’s lawyer, Tim Herman, has denounced the report as a “one-sided hachet job” and reiterated that Armstrong passed more than 500 doping tests during his career.
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