Former Tour-de-France hero turned disgraced drug cheat, Lance Armstrong, was stripped of every title he won over the course of his professional career after he refused to oppose new doping allegations made against him in August.
Now the US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) have revealed the sources of their information, information that was taken during private hearings. It reads as a who’s-who in the US cycling world including, George Hincapie, Tyler Hamilton and disgraced former Tour de France champ Floyd Landis.
The official word from the USADA is:
The U.S.P.S. 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 USADA said in a statement.A program organized by individuals who thought they were above the rules and who still play a major and active role in sport today.The USADA says its investigation into Armstrong uncovered “the most sophisticated, professionalized and successful doping program that sport has ever seen.”
When Armstrong gave up on his fight against the charges he was banned from cycling and stripped of all of his glory he said about the incident,
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 in August. He called the USADA investigation an “unconstitutional witch-hunt.”