Good Job! USADA finally got the upper hand on that big bad
Lance Armstrong. Though he has not admitted to doping, he is giving up the
fight, and it is obvious why.
By no means am I a defender of Lance, but I as an avid
cyclist and cycling fan, I wonder what good can come from USADA's decision to
attempt to strip him of his seven tour wins. Three of which came a more than a decade
ago, while the most recent was still seven years ago. So ultimately what will
the decision solve?
Within the cycling industry there seems to be a common premise
when it comes to the most influential figure of our sport to date, you either
like him and his cause or you don’t. His name stirs a variety of emotion in people,
whether it’s his fight with cancer or his amazingly consistent career at the
front of the pro peloton, Lance has become an icon, whether positive or
negative. I’ve always been more or less a fan of Lance and his racing. He has
done many positive things for our sport, whether we like it or not, he has driven
thousands of people to the sport of cycling who may have never found it
otherwise. Sure, he has had his fair share of issues from disputes with
teammates and officials, but he has also won the most prestigious cycling event
seven times. That is an amazing feat that will likely never be repeated.
As we have seen over the past couple of years, many of the
top-notch racers in the pro peloton have dabbled with the juice. Many who have
served their time and are back in the peloton today. The sport of cycling
actually tries hard to catch these cheaters by testing them repeatedly after
every race and randomly when not in competition. USADA can even ban riders for
not letting them know where they are on a given day. Get caught doping and you
can be banned anywhere from several years to life.
But Armstrong has never even tested positive for doping; all
this controversy is based on hearsay from other racers, some who have been
busted for doping themselves and possibly have something to gain from the
situation. Taking away Armstrong's victories will not correct any past
injustices but rather create more unneeded negative media attention to the
sport of cycling and its ever so apparent corruption. With the rampant use of
performance enhancing drugs in the peloton, we cannot automatically say the
second-place or even the top ten finishers each year rode clean. In fact,
combine this latest decision with all the Landis, Contador, Ullrich, Operation
Puerto scandal, and as far as I can tell no one really won the Tour from 1996
to 2007.
So what are we really left with at this point? An
influential American Cyclist who has created a whole new appreciation for the
sport of cycling in a rather sedentary country but who may have fallen in to
the trap of high stakes gambling in a sport where it seems to be the norm. One
of those we know is the fact, the other still had yet to be proven. I think
I’ll stick with the facts.
Now, after Lance has retired from professional racing he
continues to be lambasted by certain individuals who have such a strong dislike
for him that they will go to almost any extent to see that he is punished to
the fullest extent. USADA has given proven dopers a mere slap on the wrist for
cooperating with their corrupt system to take down Lance. This seems like a
backwards way to rid the sport of its doping problem, trickling down corruption
and adding to the problem that plagues the sport to begin with.
Though none of us really have any idea what Lance has done
behind the scenes of his victorious cycling career, we do know what he has done
for the sport as a whole and in my eyes the positive far outweigh the negative.
Maybe he did dope, but unfortunately he wasn’t caught at the time. So in the
end what will stripping Armstrong of his titles and banning him for the sport
ultimately do for the greater good of the sport other than make USADA feel like
they are cleaning up the sport with their currently corrupt practices.
