After years of accusations, allegations and ‘did he, didn’t he?’, the USADA has finally laid to rest Lance Armstrong, the USPS team and one of sporting’s most impressive achievements.
The evidence compiled by the USADA was enough to force Armstrong to give up his long-term battle to silence his opponents in August 2012. The 1,000 page report released by the USADA yesterday is a heavy blow to Armstrong as it portrays him as not only a dope cheat but also as a bully and aggressive team leader whom personally ran ‘the most sophisticated, professionalised and successful doping programme the sport has ever seen’.
The doping regime instilled by USPS was tactical, planned and intelligent. They timed their use of EPO - a glycoprotein hormone that regulates red blood cell production - in order to avoid detection. Before a drug test riders would also have a saline transfusion to manipulate their red blood cell concentration. Effective detection methods were not available until after 2000 and even then they were only useable within a small time frame. Lance would have already won the 1999 Tour de France and set himself on route to cycling history.
Personally I am gutted that Armstrong is not the cycling legend that he was made out to be. He was a sporting a hero of mine for his 7 Tour de France victories, coming back after battling cancer. I am in no doubt that the majority of top level riders in his era would have been doping and so am also in no doubt that Armstrong is still the greatest cyclist of all time. However, I am disappointed that he bullied teammates into doping, as this changes my perception of his character and the values I thought he embodied. Armstrong was one of my sporting heroes. Emphasis on was.
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