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U.S. judge dismisses Lance Armstrong’s case against USADA

Tour winner charged with doping conspiracy.

U.S. District Judge Sam Sparks has dismissed seven-time Tour de France winner Lance Armstrong’s case against the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency (USADA), the organization that charged him for allegedly being involved in a doping conspiracy during his highly successful athletic career.

Armstrong claimed that USADA’s Chief Executive Officer Travis Tygart had a vendetta against him and that the agency was violating his constitutional right to a fair trial.

“With respect to Armstrong’s due process challenges, the court agrees they are without merit,” Judge Sparks wrote. “Alternatively, even if the court has jurisdiction over Armstrong’s remaining claims, the court finds they are best resolved through the well-established system of international arbitration, by those with expertise in the field, rather than by the unilateral edict of a single nation’s courts.”

“We are pleased that the federal court in Austin, Texas, has dismissed Lance Armstrong’s lawsuit and upheld the established rules which provide congressionally mandated due process for all athletes,” said Tygart.

“The rules in place have protected the rights of athletes for over a decade in every case USADA has adjudicated and we look forward to a timely, public arbitration hearing in this case, should Mr. Armstrong choose, where the evidence can be presented, witness testimony will be given under oath and subject to cross examination, and an independent panel of arbitrators will determine the outcome of the case.”

Armstrong will have until August 23 to either call for an arbitration hearing, which will be public, or accept a lifetime ban from the sport, which could also cost him his seven Tour titles.

In June, USADA sent Armstrong a letter alleging that in 2009 and 2010 it collected blood samples from the former cyclist that are, “fully consistent with blood ma­nipu­lation including EPO use and/or blood transfusions.”

The organization also charged Armstrong and former U.S. Postal Service and Discovery Channel team manager Johan Bruyneel, doctors Pedro Celaya, Michele Ferrari and Luis Garcia de Moral, and trainer Jose Marti with a series anti-doping violations.

These violations included use and/or attempted use, possession, trafficking, administration and/or attempted administration of performance enhancing substances, and assisting, encouraging, aiding abetting attempted anti-doping rule violations, and aggravating circumstances.

Ferrari, Garcia del Moral and Marti have accepted lifetime bans.

Armstrong denies these charges and has never tested positive for a banned performance enhancing substance during his career as a professional cyclist or triathlete.

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