Lance Armstrong to be stripped of 7 Tour de France titles

He was once cycling's poster boy, but now it looks like Lance Armstrong will be stripped of his various titles as he bows out of a high profile doping case.

It may come as a shock to some of you, while others will have been waiting to hear the news, but it looks like Lance Armstrong has given up fighting his case against the USADA (United States Anti Doping Agency) over doping allegations.

Late yesterday evening, Lance released a statement on his official website that began with, “There comes a point in every man's life when he has to say, ‘Enough is enough.’ For me, that time is now.”

The statement was then posted onto Facebook were it received over 15,000 likes and over 3,000 comments in just over three hours. Many of the comments are telling Lance to keep strong while the others… well, no prizes for guessing what other people said. You can read them here.

So what does this mean for the seven-time Tour de France Champ and Olympic medal-winning cyclist from Texas? The New York Times reports that according to the World Anti-Doping Code, Lance will be stripped of his seven Tour titles, the bronze medal he won at the 2000 Olympics and all other titles, awards and money he won from August 1998 forward.

Further on in Lance’s statement he says, “I know who won those seven Tours, my teammates know who won those seven Tours, and everyone I competed against knows who won those seven Tours. We all raced together.”

Whether you believe that he is a superhuman champion or just another doper, the statement is unlikely to sway you too much to either side. But the fact that he’s dropping the charges after fighting for so long is reason enough to raise some questions.

It's believed that by releasing a public statement like this - saying that he's bowing out of the doping case - Lance won't have to sit trial in court where ex-team members could undoubtedly 'grass' on him in a public setting. This way, Lance will lose his titles, but we may never know if he actually doped.

It will be interesting to see what happens next.