So Lance Armstrong has decided to throw in the towel.  The USADA (United States Anti-Doping Agency) has been after him for allegedly taking PEDs during his 7 straight Tour de France victories.

Lance didn’t want to fight them anymore through arbitration and will let the USADA take away his Tour de France titles, earnings and be banned for life.

Now I can understand not wanting to go through more insane court hearings and spend all that time and money to defend yourself. But you’re Lance freaking Armstrong.  That shouldn’t be a concern for you, but I don’t know the man’s finances.  He could be in financial ruin or pretty close to it.

If you’re truly innocent, why stop fighting?  Nothing has been proven and he hasn’t failed any of the drug tests he has taken while racing.  But I have to think that he has something to hide now that he has given up.

He seemed to be pretty hell bent on proving to everyone that doubted him that he was clean and those wins were legitimate. Now all of that is done.  The sport is done.  Not that I actually cared, but it was easy to root for the guy.

He’s no better than any other prominent athlete who has been ruined by testing positive for steroids.  There is a lesson to be learned from Lance and it’s a simple one.  Unfortunately you are now guilty until proven innocent in society.  However, he had his chance to do it in the court of law where you are innocent until proven guilty.  He decided it wasn’t worth it.  Why?

We’ll never know the answer.  Probably not until he writes another book.  His idol status is gone, to me at least.  Yeah he beat cancer.  I’m not taking any of that away from him.  Yet he didn’t want to protect his innocence.  What kind of message is that?

Life gave him many lemons.  He made lemonade most of the time, but this time he chose to let it fester and just quit.  So long Lance. You’re no different than any other alleged steroid user.