American cyclist Lance Armstrong will be stripped of his seven Tour de France titles and banned from cycling for life, the US Anti-Doping Agency said Thursday.
The decision came after Armstrong announced he was dropping his fight against USADA's charges that he used performance-enhancing drugs to win the most prestigious event in the sport from 1999 to 2005.
Lance Armstrong says he will stop fighting a barrage of drug charges from the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency, putting at risk his
unparalleled string of seven Tour de France titles and his legacy as one of the greatest sportsmen in history.
Armstrong's announcement Thursday night sets up a likely lifetime ban from the sport and the possibility that he will be
stripped of his signature achievement - the extraordinary run of Tour titles he won from 1999-2005.
Armstrong, who retired last year, declined to enter arbitration- his last option - because he said he was weary of fighting
accusations that have dogged him for years.
He has consistently pointed to the hundreds of drug tests that he has passed as proof of his innocence.
"There comes a point in every man's life when he has to say, "Enough is enough." For me, that time is now," Armstrong said in a statement sent to The Associated Press. He called the USADA investigation an "unconstitutional witch hunt."
"I have been dealing with claims that I cheated and had an unfair advantage in winning my seven Tours since 1999," he said.
"The toll this has taken on my family and my work for our foundation and on me leads me to where I am today - finished with this nonsense."
USADA will almost certainly treat Armstrong's decision as an admission of guilt, and hang the label of drug cheat on an athlete who was a hero to thousands for overcoming life-threatening testicular cancer and for his foundation's support for cancer research.
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