Lance won seven Tour de France titles.
EPA /Landov
Lance Armstrong announced this morning that he will no longer fight the investigation against him brought on by the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency, which claimed that the 40-year-old possessed, sold and provided performance-enhancing drugs as well as covered up doping violations.
By choosing to end the battle, Lance will be forced to forfeit all seven of his Tour de France titles and will be banned for life from the sport of cycling.
"I have been dealing with claims that I cheated and had an unfair advantage in winning my seven Tours since 1999,” Armstrong said in a statement. “Over the past three years, I have been subjected to a two-year federal criminal investigation followed by Travis Tygart's unconstitutional witch hunt. The toll this has taken on my family and my work for our foundation and on me leads me to where I am today — finished with this nonsense.”
“Today I turn the page. I will no longer address this issue, regardless of the circumstances," he went on to say. “Going forward, I am going to devote myself to raising my five beautiful (and energetic) kids, fighting cancer, and attempting to be the fittest 40-year-old on the planet."
Lance’s choice to end the battle comes less than a week after he lost a legal bid to stop the investigation.
