🇺🇸🚴- On this day in 2012, Lance Armstrong was formally stripped of his seven consecutive Tour de France victories and banned for life by the International Cycling Union. From 1999 to 2005, he dominated professional cycling during an era of rampant PED use. Even USADA acknowledged that 20 of the 21 Tour de France podium finishers during those years were linked to doping, roughly 95%. When essentially everyone at the highest level is doing it, it isn't cheating. Lance competed against the best cyclists in the world and defeated them seven consecutive times. Lance survived advanced testicular cancer that had metastasized to his lungs, abdomen, and brain, returned to competition, and became an inspiration to millions. By 2012, his Livestrong foundation helped raise nearly $500 million for cancer awareness and support, which gave hope to countless patients and families. He is a great American who brought unprecedented attention to cycling in the United States and dominated Europe's most prestigious race for seven straight years. His subsequent punishment made him the singular face of a problem that permeated the entire sport. They can take his titles. They can rewrite their record books. They can spend the next hundred years pretending those seven summers never happened. But Lance Armstrong beat the best cyclists on earth seven consecutive times, and no bureaucrat in Switzerland can change that. The greatest cyclist who ever lived.