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"Seven-time Tour de France winner Lance Armstrong announced Thursday that he would stop his years-long fight against charges brought by the US Anti Doping Agency, though he admitted no wrongdoing. \"I am finished with this nonsense,\" the legendary cyclist declared in an online statement. \nThe USADA shot back that Armstrong would be stripped of his Olympic medal, his Tour de France titles and prize money, and that he would be banned from cycling for life. Armstrong contends that the USADA doesn't have the authority to strip him of the titles.\nArmstrong's lawsuit fighting the agency's right to bring the charges was dismissed in Austin earlier this week. \nRegardless of who is in the right, Armstrong's supporters rallied on Facebook and Twitter. Most of their venom appeared to be directed at the USADA; the agency's name and the name of its director, Travis Tygart, were trending on Twitter. \nArmstrong was collecting roughly ten postings of support per minute on Facebook, with only a handful declaring him to be a \"cheat\" \u2014 and that was before he'd even posted his statement, which collected more than 4,000 Likes in half an hour.\nThere was no immediate reaction from Armstrong's media company, Livestrong. \nWhat's your reaction to Armstrong's decision? Let us know in the comments."^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://mashable.com/2012/08/23/lance-armstrong-banned-cycling/>