Lance Armstrong stripped of Tour de France titles and banned.

[Napoléon]

The reasons for not fighting it are in his statement.

Yeah, and as I've said, they seem weak as fuck.

Bear in mind that this is just the USADA that has stripped him of his titles. The other official organisations (such as those that organise the Tour de France) have not done so yet, and they have sided with Armstrong in the past.

Fair point, we'll see what happens.

Not contesting charges does not make one guilty, and if one is not yet found guilty, they should be presumed innocent under the law. Whether Armstrong wants to contest the charges or not is irrelevant; a court proceeding can go ahead regardless.

But the point I've made is that by not contesting them you are basically showing yourself to be guilty, at least in my view. When someone says you're a murderer, and you choose not to participate in the case because it's too tiresome, I'm inclined to think you're bullshitting. Yeah, before you go there, it's not a murder case, but I think his whole career at stake would be of reasonable importance that you would fight such charges all the way, not just dismiss them. He might not be guilty for all anyone knows, that much is true. But if that were the case, I think the reason's he's given for not fighting the case are, as I've said, very, very weak.

This is all how it just seems to me though, I hadn't even heard he'd been battling these charges for so long until today, so I may be completely wrong.

I see where you're coming from. However, he's retired, so his career is not at risk.

For real? He's being stripped of everything he's achieved throughout his career, how can you say it's not at risk? Crazy.

People are motivated by different factors, and based on his personal statement, perhaps he feels that making a principled stand against the USADA and not participating in what he feels is a witch hunt is his way of keeping his character intact in his own eyes.

That very well may be true, but like I said, from an outsider looking in, it makes him look very suspicious that he's not fighting these charges.

I will admit that I'm not intimately familiar with his history. However, after reviewing some information found online, I find the lack of physical evidence and the behavior of the USADA to be suspect.

I actually find the number of people willing to testify against him quite overwhelming. But I guess you're going into conspiracy territory as to whether they are reliable witnesses etc.