Thursday, October 11, 2012

It's not about the bout with cancer

Up until the bitter end, I persisted in believing that Lance Armstrong was an extraordinary athlete and a morally upright gentleman, and that all attempts to accuse him of cheating and lying were doomed.


Alas, massive evidence—above all, from Lance's fellow-members of the US Postal team—forces me to change my mind. Abruptly, I've ceased to be a believer in The Boss.


In the context of this scandal, the most pertinent question today concerns the attitude of the UCI (Union Cycliste Internationale) in Switzerland, which must react within 21 days to the charges against Armstrong formulated by USADA (the US anti-doping agency). Observers have often had the impression that the UCI has hoped continually, for the sake of world cycling, that Armstrong would succeed in keeping his head above water. But it will be hard for the UCI to deny the grave findings revealed in the bulky USADA report.

Meanwhile, as Armstrong continues to refuse to "come out" with any kind of mea culpa, his situation is becoming more and more isolated, if not pathetic. Does he consider that his life-saving role as a fundraiser within his Livestrong organization precludes him from stepping down into the dirty arena with former mates such as George Hincapie, Tyler Hamilton, Frankie Andreu and Jonathan Vaughters?

BREAKING NEWS: In a comment attached to this blog post, I mentioned briefly the fact that members of Australia's GreenEdge team appear to be totally clean. Alas, the situation might not be as simple as that. Click here to see an article in The Sydney Morning Herald indicating the possible involvement in the Armstrong saga of Matthew White, sports director of Orica-GreenEdge. Click here to see a more recent article—which appears to have been published on Saturday, October 13, in Sydney—indicating that White has admitted his personal involvement in dope, and resigned from his professional cycling jobs.

3 comments:

  1. Like you - for a long time I refused to believe that Armstrong was a doper. But the evidence now is so overwhelming that I have had to cross him off my list of sporting heroes. I feel cheated because I supported him for so long and even argued with other people about how clean he was and how he had never tested positive.

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  2. Hi Badger: I'm in exactly the same situation. Thankfully, neither our Cadel Evans nor any other prominent Australian cyclists (along with members of the GreenEdge team) appear to have been hit by the doping plague. An optimist might believe that the evil bubble has now burst, and that professional cycling can only get better, cleaner. Let's hope so. The Tour de France remains a gigantic and fabulous event.

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  3. Isn't it interesting that after getting away with doping for so long, Lance Armstrong, finally got found out? I'm another who had believed him clean. I wonder if anyone ever suggested attaching him to a lie detector?!

    Shame, but let's hope officials can get the whole sport cleaned up.

    BTW, I'm glad to see "Recent Comments" in the sidebar rather than "Most Viewed Posts" or whatever it was! Thanks.

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