Armstrong's case tossed
By QMI Agency
|
  
|
  US Lance Armstrong counts up his wins before the 21st stage of the 92nd Tour de France cycling race between Corbeil-Essonnes and the Champs-Elysees in Paris, 24 July 2005. (Joel Saget/AFP Files)
|
Lance Armstrong's lawsuit against the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency was thrown out of court Monday by a federal judge in Austin, Texas.
The decision allows the USADA's doping case against Armstrong, a seven-time Tour de France winner, to go ahead. Armstrong has denied ever doping and claimed in his suit that the ASADA didn't have jurisdiction and its arbitration process violates his constitutional rights.
U.S. District Judge Sam Sparks disagreed.
"With respect to Armstrong's due process challenges, the court agrees they are without merit," Sparks wrote in dismissing the case. "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."
The USADA alleges that Armstrong took steroids and blood boosters from 1999 to 2005. He is facing a lifetime ban and could have his Tour titles stripped if the agency can prove he was doping.
