I do think a litle more perspective could be employed when looking at the transgressions of Armstrong, and the alarmingly large number of riders who have been either fingered for doping or at least accused.
I'm no fan of doping, and if it can be purged from the sport then that would indeed be great. But when Armstrongs first places are stripped from the record books, and they don't promote the other riders, am I the only one thinking that it must be so rife that the powers that be, just don't know what to do with the past.
And it is not only the Armstrong era. I remember reading a fair few fruity articles implying that Hinault and other elite riders of his generation were using steroids at some point in their career, and of course Tommy Simpson was so wankered on speed and booze (trying to use the combo as a diuretic apparently) that he croaked on a hill.
But the difference is back in the 50s and 60s drugs were just one way of getting an advantage, and not viewed with the horror that drug use is regarded now. And because the sporting world didn't change it's attitude to drugs overnight, control and vilification have uncomfortably shuffled in when the public profile of the sport was increasing. So you just have to start hitting harder and harder, apologising more and more, till our beloved sport has the reputation it has now.
For gods sake, the USA track team were boasting at the 1984 olympics that they were using blood packing (enriching the corpuscular denstiy by re-transfusing centifuged red cells; an effect that is also achieved by using EPO(which is so much safer)) technology to enhance their performance.
Lance Armstrong was just the top deck on a house of cards that had to come toppling down sooner or later. Taking drugs is bad, but being an agressive bully and a manipulative self-serving wanker is worse; he can stop taking drugs, but his personailty won't change.
They should draw a line under the past now. If a rider won on drugs and they have retired, let it go provided the come clean and apologise. If they won on drugs and are still riding, then they must confess now, lose their past results but have a clean sheet. If they do not confess now, and later are found out, they will be erased from the sport. Along with any new riders that start today who will also be premanently expunged from the sport should they transgress.
It is only by being draconian for a generation that a new order will arise.
That's my scattershot ten-pennyworth, and for what it is worth, I still have all those memories of the LA rolercoater ride, and tainted as it may be, it was all very entertaining (and TDF on telly is only there as entertainment).
