Last Post about Lance

So no one won the Tour de France from 1998 to 2005.  It wasn't even ran if you look at the record books 20 years from now.  No one entered it, rode it or even witnessed it according to the record books.  Lance Armstrong used to hold all of the records for those years but he was allegedly a Doper and Dopers cant be Tour de France winners.  Now I say allegedly because even though the case against Lance Armstrong is so overly airtight that Nike, Trek and Radio Shack have broken all ties with him, no one has ever found a test that shows he doped.....No one.  I never would have 100% believe that Lance doped until about 3 weeks ago when George Hincapie came out with his admission of guilt.  George was my all time favorite rider.  He was the guy who never got the attention but worked the hardest.  He was the offensive lineman who didnt get credited for making the all star quarterback look so good on the field.  He was the speechwriter that was in the background when the candidate is praised for being so eloquent.  He is the guy that was always in the eye of the storm but had that grin of determination on his face.  Lance would concentrate on the Tour.  George raced the Classics.  Lance got the accolades.  George received a pat on the back.  He raced 17 Tours and was on a winning team for many of those.  7 with Lance.  He kept quiet and did his job while Tyler, Frankie, Frankie's wife, Floyd and many others called foul on the Armstrong Empire.  He was the quintessential Lieutenant to Lance and kept a tight lip on things.....But finally he broke....and admitted that Yes he had doped too.  Then.......and only then did I know.......LA was fooling us all.   Lance is a Doper.  Thats hard for me to say or even fathom as reality....But I know its true now.

So what now?  Do I take all of this and process it to be anything other than it is?  Someone I thought to be a superior athlete is now a fraud?  A liar?  A charlatan?  A cheat????  Then I look around at what he did for others....People with Cancer.  People who were out of shape with no hope, no desire and no will power.  He transformed so many thousands of people through his Livestrong Foundation and just motivating them to get up off the couch and ride a bike.  He almost completely rejuvenated the cycling scene in North America. I was already a rider when Lance appeared but many folks I ride with were inspired by him.....Even other i know were inspired by the way he kicked Cancer's ass....Folks with no hope saw a reason to keep on fighting for life....."Hell if a guy can go on to win the Tour after having terminal cancer, then surely I can make it to go back to my family"......Yes he inspired SO MANY.  So was this whole thing a waste?

Today they announced that not only were all 7 tours being stripped but that Lance will have to give back his earnings for those tours.  This amounts to 2.5 million pounds which is substantial but if he had to pay it, I feel pretty sure he could cover it.  Most likely there will be suits and counter suits from the big corporations he represented that will cry foul and try to recoup money.  But for every dollar companies like Nike, Trek, Radio Shack, Nissan etc paid Lance, he brought them much more in return...He was the Golden Boy from 1998-2005.  Everything he touched turned to the proverbial Gold.  But more importantly, he was the Golden Boy for Cancer Survivors and their families.  The Good that Livestrong has done will never be erased in the minds or bodies of the people he helped see another day, or month, or even years.  Its easy for the pundits to crucify the man now that it seems the world was so enamored with they could not see being a cheater.  But instead of doing that, lets hope we can all remember that his foundation was the good thing that came out of all of this.

Last thing I will say is this:  Cycling is a dirty sport that must do many things to clean itself up.  I dont know if it can ever regain the purity of the sport it had in the early years of cycling.  The races and competition are so tough today I cant imagine being a competitive cyclist.  I believe that Lance was just leveling the playing field,  I think given his work ethic and attitude he would have kicked their asses for 7 or 8 years if they all were clean....We will never know because they cant pick a winner from 1998-2005.  Why?  because no one else was clean either.