And the truth shall set you free..This is the sort
of honesty & straightforward approach we need in government. The
fact that Lance has come out and publicly admitting that he used
performance enhancing substances does in no means diminish his
accomplishments. If anything it aggrandizes it.
Look at all the much larger institutions and
people (politicians, bankers, royal family, religious institutions)
that have been conning people for centuries now. How many lies and
scandals have been covered up there? Quite a few right, there are
still many who ignorantly go along with what they are spoon fed on
the news and vilify whoever the news says accordingly.
Lance accomplished no mean feat, performing
enhancing drugs or not. Let's not forget who crossed the finish line
7 times in a row. That's as real as it's ever going to get. Do they
really think that they can take away what Lance did because of a
technicality? The fact of the matter is that Lance passed every
single one of his drug tests, meaning that he always acted within the
law. There were 5 different runners up to Lance Armstrong during his
7 wins, out of which 4 (Alex Zuelle, Jan Ullrich, Joseba Beloki &
Ivan Basso) all admitted to have used performance enhancing
substances. Alex Kloden was also investigated in relation to Doping.
None of them stood the test of time or prevailed like Armstrong did,
so why are we vilifying a man who gave to much to cycling and
inspired even more.
Let's not forget about Alberto Contador who was
involved in Operacion Puerto, back in the day. He was also
investigated and acquitted at the time. Just like lance. He later
failed a drug test for clenbuterol and lost his 2010 Tour de France
title. What is mentioned about him? Nothing because he didn't achieve
what Armstrong did.
It's wonderful to have a sport where there has
been such a successful athlete. His achievements equal some of the
major sporting achievements of our time: Michael Schumacher, 7 world
titles (5 consecutive). Sebastian Loeb, 9 consecutive rally
championships. Michael Phelps, 8 Gold Medals at a single Olympic
games. Cycling is crucifying its own super-hero. Lance's dedication,
commitment, fighting spirit and desire to win above anything else was
stronger than anyone else's in his field. It looks great on the
record books.
By stripping Lance of his titles, the UCI
acknowledges that their tests weren't up to par. They have shown the
world how incompetent they are by not designing specific enough rules
for what they want to enforce. They laid the goal posts and moved
them around as events unfolded. By disgracing Lance, they are
disgracing themselves. I suppose anything to draw attention away from
their constant failures is welcome. It's that 'blame everyone else'
attitude is what's giving their sport a bad image.
We've all known for years that cycling and doping
are synonymous. Think of the last random comment you heard about
cycling that didn't involve doping in it. They go hand in hand,
cycling is a science and teams come up with elaborate ways of
sticking within the rules. Just like in Formula 1 where it's a case
of which car is fastest. Who really understands what's going on in
the race anyway, if it weren't for the enigma of doping no one would
really follow a bunch of grown men that go out cycling in packs all
day.
As you can probably tell I'm a massive Lance Armstrong fan and the fact that he has told the truth not only makes me respect him more, it also just goes to show how mammoth a task he accomplished.
