Lance Armstrong, the seven-time Tour de France winner, who cycled himself to disgrace over doping charges, lost his biggest sponsors Nike, RadioShack Corp and Anheuser-Busch.
"Due to the seemingly insurmountable evidence that Lance Armstrong participated in doping and misled Nike for more than a decade, it is with great sadness that we have terminated our contract with him. Nike does not condone the use of illegal performance enhancing drugs in any manner," Nike said in a statement.
Nike assured that it will continue supporting the cancer-fighting charity, Livestrong, founded by Armstrong. The disgraced cyclist announced that he will step down as chairman of the organization.
Anheuser-Busch, the U.S. unit of Belgian brewing conglomerate Anheuser-Busch Imbev, said it will not renew the contract with Armstrong when the current contract expires at the end of 2012. The beermaker had signed a three-year agreement with Armstrong at the end of 2009 to sell its Michelob beer.
The electronics retailer RadioShack had inked a sponsorship agreement with Armstrong in July 2009; however, the company said it has ended its relationship with the troubled cycler.
The decision from the business houses to distance themselves from Armstrong came after the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) released a report that runs over 1,000 pages concluding that Armstrong's Postal Service cycling team ran the most sophisticated, professionalized and successful doping program that sport has ever seen.
USADA banned him for life from professional competition and stripped him of his record-setting Tour titles. The report said that the cyclist not only used performance-enhancing drugs, but also pushed others to do the same so that he could win.
