With Lance Armstrong finally confessing the way we advised him all along …

The question now is: Besides confessing, will Lance apologize?

For us at BikeIntelligencer, an apology would be the final nail in the Lance Armstrong image reconstruction project.

The doping we always understood. Lance led cycling into professional sport’s most endemic doping era and was its best and highest practitioner — or worst and lowest, depending on how you look at it.

To win, Lance had to dope. But so did virtually every other cyclist at Tour de France levels. The ones who didn’t dope, didn’t win. Simple as that.

That’s why we always argued that Lance should just come clean, with the “Everybody did it” excuse. Then we could all move on.

With a confession, the issue becomes Lance’s behavior to his fans, the media and his fellow cyclists over the years. Armstrong not only bullied other cyclists into doping, he bullied anyone who challenged his honesty.

A confession won’t fully make amends. Only a full, heartfelt, believable apology will provide closure and allow us all to go forward with peace of mind.

With an apology, we can get back to focusing on Lance’s amazing athletic accomplishments and the admirable work his foundation has done and is doing. With an apology, we can close the door on all the bad karma Lance fomented over the years.

With an apology, maybe Lance can become a hero again.

The Sports Illustrated investigation may not have turned up particularly new information, but it did pull together a powerful narrative based on repeated authoritative events and accusations over the years. And remember: Any journalistic investigation prints only a portion of what it actually knows. For legal and other reasons, a certain percentage remains in the bank, awaiting further official action. Depending on what happens hence, we expect more from SI on the Armstrong case.

Our wish remains that Lance would simply fess up, use the “everybody did it” defense and move on: “Our hope is that Lance will make a clean breast of it and move on, so that his foundation and his worthy work all over the globe for fighting cancer and bringing fans and attention to cycling can continue without a morbid cloud hanging over it.”

In the meantime, a move that could eventually impact Lance’s case, assuming it goes to trial: A San Francisco judge will allow testimony of other players linked to steroids use in the perjury trial of baseball slugger Barry Bonds. A similar ruling in the Lance case would open up a real hornets nest for the Texas legend.

Meanwhile, Lance’s former mechanic minces few words on Armstrong’s culpability in an an interview with a New Zealand newspaper. Mike Anderson believes Lance could become a permanent “symbol for decades of corruption” in the sport.

Contador says the doping agent clenbuterol turned up in his urine sample because he ate contaminated Spanish beef (which the whiny Spnaish beef industry doubts is true). Floyd Landis says clenbuterol is a commonly used performance enhancer well-known among the peloton.

The dour Spaniard says he hopes for a speedy resolution of his case, as long as it’s “not guilty.” If that doesn’t happen, the whiny Spaniard says he may quit cycling.

VeloNews’ Andrew Hood enlightens us on the four lawyers now reviewing Contador’s case.

Now you have a situation where a leading Spanish cyclist accuses a Spanish beef producer of disseminating beef contaminated with a muscle-building drug used to fatten cattle quickly. And in the middle, Spain’s doping authorities have to sort it all out.

So here’s where we stand. Contador, winner of the Tour de France, has been accused of using clenbuterol after trace amounts were found in his urine samples taken during last July’s Tour. Contador says he unknowingly ingested the drug by eating contaminated meat from a butcher in northern Spain.

The World Anti-doping Agency said after visiting the butcher and his slaughterhouse that it could find no evidence to support Contador’s claim.

So now Spain’s beef producers are calling for an investigation into Contador’s allegations.

Meanwhile, Luxembourg ace and our man Andy Schleck, the Tour’s runner-up who stands to take the 2010 yellow jersey away from Contador if the latter is found culpable, says he believes Contador is telling the truth and doesn’t want the crown sloppy seconds. Like Matt Damon in “Rounders,” he wants to win the Tour straight up — not “via a desk.” That’s why we love Andy.

Armstrong Doping Investigation JRA — Just Rolling Along

American investigators were in France to review evidence in their grand jury investigation into allegations of systematic doping by the American champion Lance Armstrong.

A week ago the Americans met with French police at the headquarters of the international law enforcement agency Interpol, in Lyon. That meeting, according to sources cited by the AP, focused largely on a police investigation of medical equipment retrieved from a trash container during the 2009 Tour.

So Jonathan’s comments to VeloNews‘ Andrew Hood on the hoopla surrounding Alberto Contador’s provisional suspension for doping bear thoughtful consideration:

“At end of day, it’s one very high-profile problem. The sad part is it detracts from the general and global progress that’s been made against doping,” he continued. “The meaning of the data is incredibly positive. It’s disappointing (to see negative headlines) because so much progress has been made.”

Vaughters is right in one sense. This year’s Giro d’Italia — a once drug-besotted event — concluded with no positive dope tests. And the Tour de France’s only black mark so far is the cloud over Contador, which the dour Spaniard still claims is misguided.

Moreover, most of the top riders are saying they’ve gotten the message and joined in calling for clean Grand Tours. The prevailing ethic seems to be to put the past behind them and stay straight up for the duration.

Check out Andrew’s whole story.

Meanwhile, former Lance teammate Yaroslav Popovych, a Ukrainian rider known as an Amrstrong loyalist, testified in the federal probe into allegations against Armstrong.

And Floyd Landis, whose “coming clean” included charges against Armstrong, has been ordered to stand trial for computer hacking related to his own doping past.

Meanwhile, banned Italian cyclist Pietrio Caucchioli has decided to challenge the validity of the “biological passport” test used in his case. This comes just days after fellow countryman Franco Pellizotti was cleared of doping charges on the basis of insufficient evidence from biological passport data. Pellizotti’s lawyers argued the biological passport is not a reliable mechanism. If Caucchioli succeeds it could further cloud use of the bio passport for dope detection — in and of itself, at least. It still may find utility for casting suspicion on a rider’s performance — which then followup blood testing could confirm.

While the excuse seems contrived, the Contador case could rival the truly inspired ratonalization of French tennis star Richard Gasquet, who explained his positive cocaine test as the result of kissing a girl in a night club. Later testing seemed to reinforce his defense.

Contador also can take solace, perhaps, in the absolution of Italian racing star Franco Pellizotti, the bronze finisher in the 2009 Tour of Italy who later was placed under suspicion due to irregularities in his biological passport — a new anti-doping measure that looks at performance irregularities.

The most critical line in the news article:

Pellizotti’s lawyer, Rocco Taminelli, declared: “The biological passport is not reliable.”

If true, at least from a legal standpoint in a court of law, it could doom the whole concept.

Contador of course is Spanish. In “cracking down” on five cyclists, or is it seven or 5+7=12, suspected of doping, Spanish authorities hoping to clean up Spain’s sleazy reputation went out of their way to point out that Contador was not among the five or however many. Not that they were naming any. Doping is, after all, a “global problem.”

Not that we’re implying any of this has to do with Dr. Eufemiano Fuentes, or one of the most celebrated doping cases in history. We can confirm, however, that Fuentes is Spanish.

Nor do we mean to suggest that doping is rampant in Spain, or that that country’s winning ways in soccer (World Cup title), tennis (Rafael Nadal No. 1) have any connection with a vast, widespread and inculcated doping underworld.

It all could be fairy dust.

The New York Times and Associated Press reported that traces of a plasticizer used in IV bags were found in Contador’s blood samples, indicating that he might have used a transfusion to refresh his blood during the Tour. Removing one’s blood, storing it and then replacing it with a clandestine transfusion is a documented way of cheating while eluding doping controls.

A Contador blood sample earlier was found to contain minute amounts of clenbuterol, an aerobic aid also considered a performance-enhancer. Contador contends he ate beef contaminated with the substance, but insiders remain skeptical.

Meanwhile, disgraced Tour champion Bernhard Kohl continues to note that in today’s climate it’s impossible to win without cheating.