Lance Armstrong: The guy who lied about cheating

June 14, 2012 by  

It has always been a no-brainer to me that Lance Armstrong used performance-enhancing drugs. The world of cycling is dominated by PEDs and has been for a long time. The idea that a guy who heroically recovered from cancer of the everything came back and completely dominated fields full of guys who cheated while not cheating himself is unreasonable. In 2009, I wrote this:

With the rampant use of performance enhancing drugs in the world of cycling, it is starting to take an extraordinary act of intellectual dishonesty to believe that Armstrong has been clean his entire career. So while I have a lot of respect for Armstrong as a man and an athlete, I’m not willing to keep my head buried in the sand. My opinion is that Lance Armstrong has benefited from illegal performance enhancing drugs in the past, and may very well be using whatever he can in this latest comeback attempt.

My feelings remain the same, and as of yesterday, it appears those feelings may be validated.

The seven-time Tour de France winner who in February saw a two-year federal investigation into his alleged use of performance-enhancing drugs dropped without charges being filed, is back in the spotlight of doping suspicions.

The U.S. Anti-Doping Agency has accused Armstrong and five former members of his support staff — three doctors, a trainer and a team manager — of engaging in a massive doping conspiracy from 1998 to 2011. Armstrong, 40, who retired from cycling last year, could see his Tour titles get stripped as a result.

USADA‘s letter to Armstrong dated June 12 includes previously unpublicized allegations against him, saying blood samples taken in 2009 and 2010 were “consistent with blood manipulation including EPO use and/or blood transfusions.”

Armstrong denies the charges and he always will. He has pointed to some type of conspiracy that wants his legacyt tarnished. But in the U.S., Armstrong is beloved. He is truly a great person.

Sadly, in the end, Armstrong’s legacy won’t be that of a great cycling champion or tireless philanthropist. He will be known as the guy who cheated and then spent the rest of his life lying about it.

-WKW

Comments

6 Responses to “Lance Armstrong: The guy who lied about cheating”

  1. Michael on June 14th, 2012 6:12 am

    I would slightly disagree with the word “drugs.” It’s certainly a performance-enhancing technique, and certainly against the rules (i.e., “cheating”), but it’s not a drug, per se. If this is true, then he’s just injecting himself with his own blood. Of course, if it’s someone else’s blood, then that could lead to a whole host of other questions. But if it’s his blood (typically they use the athlete’s own blood) that he’s set aside for the specific purpose of “doping,” then it’s not necessarily a drug in the traditional sense. Regardless, your main point is correct. If this is how everyone else plays the game, then there’s no reason to expect that a seven-time winner would not be doing the same thing.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blood_doping

  2. dgun on June 15th, 2012 9:57 am

    Also, why in 2009 and 2010 with your career over and with the intense scrutiny of these allegations still swirling around you, would you continue to do this? It would seem to me that if this man cheated to win one of the most important international sporting events several times in a row, and with as much as people wanted to catch him cheating, there would have been 100% positive, undeniable proof by now. How does the most famous person in cycling get away with it when scores of others get busted?

  3. bill on June 29th, 2012 8:54 pm

    dgun - You have valid points as well. I read an article several years ago about the Tour De France and the behavior of the group. To paraphrase: The group supports the “leaders”. If someone tries to leave the pack and does it without the pack’s permission, they will get punished.

    I think Lance Armstrong was a leader and they protected him, their sport, and themselves all by trying to keep it “inside”. If everyone is “doping”, then they must still respect him as “The Best Doper Of Us All”

  4. testosterone replacement therapy causes testicular cancer on September 2nd, 2012 10:48 pm

    users “cycle” their drugs. they only take the steroids or testosterone or growth hormone for limited amounts of time and then go off it for a time to avoid the side effects. they can be tested during those times. witnesses describe the tricks Armstrong used to avoid the tests if he would not have tested clean at those times of the cycling. the guys who got caught were simply not as “tricky”. sociopaths are very good at putting people off and timing things for such outcomes. they don’t get caught because they behave like predators and are on the prowl and watch and plan for such things and have escape routes. others get caught because they are not thinking like criminals and not watching like predators. Armstrong, according to many witnesses, could well fall within that category of persons who live without remorse and plan out and “case” situations and prowl and think like criminals…

  5. scott Campbell on September 4th, 2012 5:44 am

    Its about as obvious as monstrous pimple on the end of your nose. Lance cheated and he has been lying and decieving the public ever since. A dozen witnesses along with a half dozen positive for doping blood samples should be enough proof to all who are able to look at the evidence unbiased. Not only did he cheat in a sport that was rife with it, but even more importantly he has set about to destroy the lives of any and all who dared to speak the truth about Lance and his drug use. People who were his associates, friends, and team mates were totally denegrated by Lance and his high priced team of Attorneys, simply so he could maintain his fame. This truly speaks to the lack of integrity this man has. Sure he has raised millions of dollars for cancer research established a strong brand name in Livestrong, but it was all done under false pretenses with accomplishments that were never really what they seemed. A Liar is a Liar and a cheat is a cheat weather its a politician, attorney, or famous bicyclist. I feel sorry for the few cyclist who were clean. Lance robbed them of their chance to win glory, to become famous and work on their favorite charities. He was selfish, greedy and obsessed with fame at all cost and in the years since he has wasted any possible goodwill by the fact that he basically used a scorched earth policy to destroy all who dared speak the truth. Lance needs to simply fade away

  6. Ralph on September 4th, 2012 9:11 am

    As much as I hate LA as a person, but the federal investigation was just not fair. How come George Hincapie gets a 6 months ban after his career, while LA is losing it all? Both did the same thing, only difference LA was successful in his job. And this can’t be justified by the fact, that Hincapie was confessing, while LA is still not telling the truth. Hincapie has nothing to lose, his career was over anyway and he never won the TdF 7 consecutive times. Also there is no multi-million dollar foundation with the name George Hincapie. So of course LA is not confessing!

    But to be honest I was praying every night that this day would come, so I will not complain too much about it.

    More interesting is the question, why Hamilton, Landis and co. stabbed LA in the back? Were they jealous, bored or just couldn’t continue with their lies, as they said? But why bringing down LA, for their wrong doing?
    And what made George Hincapie confessing it all? Without LA he wouldn’t have made half of the money he has today. He benefited from LA more than any other rider in the peloton. And as far as I know, they were never at odds.

    There was doping before LA and there will be doping after him. Unfortunately cyclist are the very last in the entire system of professional cycling, who can make a change towards a drug free sport. The reason why it seems to change slightly now, is that sponsors demanded it after getting so much negative reputation, media demanded it, following anti-doping teams were founded and slowly the new generation of cyclists seem to have a fair chance winning a race riding clean. But the cyclists themselves have absolutely nothing to do with the “positive” change we are seeing now.

    But anyway, as the old German guy I met at the TdF this summer said: “What the fuck do I care about doping”. LA couldn’t have said it better.

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