How about this guy?

Out of curiosity, how is this handled in the US?

In Europe he was pretty much a proven doper for the last ten years. Nobody really doubted that. But the US always held him in high regard, is it now changing?

It's good that his elaborate system of doping, fraud, and threats, is finally coming down.

Unfortunately Armstrong is just the tip of the iceberg. It remains to be seen if the cycling sport has the courage to actually clean itself from the doped-up circus it has degenerated to. They have taken a first step now, but the tone of the announcements ("Armstrong needs to be forgotten!") doesn't make me optimistic.

Woah. I really didn't know much about the guy, apparently. What all has he done?

FTFY

He's their sacrificial lamb.

It's pretty much known 99% of the cyclists doped in some way during that period. I'd have let 'em keep 'em, just asterisk that whole period. Besides, the dude conquered cancer, lost a nut, and used his fame to champion charity towards a good cause.

Stripped from cycling, all his titles, all his sponsorship. and i believe lawsuits are incoming. the truth is lots of the cyclists were cheating alongside him; he just shows that when it comes to cheating, Americans are on the cutting edge. Google it. It's amazing the lengths he and his team went to. Not just doping, but intimidation, bribing. It boggles my mind this guy lied through his teeth at everyone, embracing the hero label the whole time.

Pretty much everyone in cycling was/is doping, so I didn't care one way or the other. I assumed an equal playing field. This is simply a PR move to try and cover up the fact that cycling is comically dirty.

Armstrong was still a cancer survivor who brought a lot of attention to THAT cause and raised a ton of money for cancer research. Compared to that, being the King of Cheaters doesn't mean all that much to me.

- massively used illegal substances and techniques to win the world's most popular cycling race 7 times
- lied about that every time he was asked (which happened quite often)
- threatened to ruin other cyclists if they talked about his practices
- threatened to sue journalists and other people who mentioned his connections to doping (and sometimes did sue successfully)

The problem is that if steroids become legal, they then become de facto mandatory if you want to be competitive. This wouldn't be a problem if steroids didn't have health risks, but since they do you're essentially requiring athletes to poison themselves.

It may be that most cyclists dope, I don't know. But I would be surprised if there were no cyclists at all who don't dope and don't want to.

Well, as it is, you're asking them to abuse their body in a myriad of other ways to stay competitive. We didn't evolve to spend 80% of our waking hours in the gym, either, and doing so will inevitably take its toll a few years down the line. Being a professional sportsman means sacrificing your life to something, like it or not.

I don't think the cyclists themselves have much of a choice when it comes to doping. Maybe it's different now, but for the last 25 years or so I'm sure it was either join the club or forget about pro cycling. I'm much more angry at team directors, team doctors and the officials who plan these insane routes. There's just no way that not everybody in the sport knew exactly what was going on, yet it were only the drivers who had to risk their health, and were publicly vilified. And the UCI is corrupt, as the USADA investigation seems to prove.

Mind you, Armstrong with his intimidation tactics and the way he pressured his teammates into doping deserves all the trouble he's in now.

The reason it is bad, in my sport (baseball) at least, is because when one guy hits the ball harder and faster due to increased muscle mass from doping it makes other hitters feel like they need to do the same to compete. With steroids and such having real risks that's just not fair.

What is worst about this guy isn't his use of doping. Most cyclist during that time (and probably now as well) were users. Riis is one of the few that admitted it, but all are suspect. However, what made Lance worst, wasn't that he was doping king, he was the don; the head of the mafia. He made others use, bullied them, threatened them until they gave in. It's easy to say they shouldn't have, but anyone that ever has encounterend this kind of practices, knows it's not that easy.

I hope he will have to pay, and hopefully they will get Bruyneel as well.