Timed for the start of the Tour de France 2010, the Wall Street Journal is running an explosive series on doping in the ranks of pro cycling, focusing primarily on Lance Armstrong and his inner circle. The allegations stem from a single source, former Armstrong teammate Floyd Landis, but the articles make it clear that the official investigation involves a large number of figures close to cycling.
Obviously the series is timed for highest point of impact, the first day of the Tour. Speculation immediately is focusing on its impact on Team Radio Shack, which includes Lance and several holdovers from the era in question. Some suggest that Lance will withdraw, or that the team will be forced out by stringent oversight.
We think Team Radio Shack and Lance will continue through the Tour as though nothing has happened. We also think they’ll be squeaky clean throughout. Which means lowering expectations, because a clean Team Radio Shack will be in no position to challenge for leadership roles in this year’s Tour.
We reiterate that Lance’s announcement that this will be his final Tour was a calculated attempt to deflect attention from the doping allegations and redirect focus to his ride as a triumphant farewell rock-star tour. Although the Journal‘s series elaborates on several key facets of doping, naming names and identifying dates, it does not constitute a legal action that would require either TRS or cycling’s governing body, the UCI, to withdraw from competition.
Although we’ve gotten pushback for being naive (see comments), we still think Lance will — at the right time and place — own up to the doping years. There are too many witnesses, too many associates involved, for the scandal to avoid litigation. Rather than dragging everything out in court and risking permanent blackening of his reputation, Lance will choose an “everybody did it” defense. As Richard Nixon famously put it, “It’s not the crime that kills you, it’s the cover up.”
Around the Web:
Cozy Beehive: Testimonies in the Lance Armstrong Doping Crisis.
Joe Papp: Books, Angry Motorists, Greg and Lance.
Bonnie Ford, ESPN: Crunch Time for Lance.
VeloNews: Bikes sold to finance doping.
It is clearly prposterous that any kind of drug was realated to my brother’s natural athleticism. A man who never smoked, drank or used a single drug. He was a purist/scienttist intensely interested in health and a high quality body to be so foolish. He was literally terrified of needles and any type of drug. His last invention was a non-invasive blood glucose monitor, that used a small laser beam to ascertain the glucose in blood and quickly display it on the screen. Lance and a plethora of pro cyclists may have used this drug but my brother had no reason or inclination to even conceive of something quiye that outrageous. He had nothing to prove and while he was in local technical officer, or executine competitions, he strictly dreamed of the Tour, but reality dictated that at his age it would not be. He was a physicist with an MBA and 23 patents under his name. Doping on recreational cyclimg 4 days a week?. Draw your own conclsion. It would be like me doping to play softball on the weekends to impress my wife and kids. Silly at best. Lance was a hero to Jan, but more because he was an amzaing cyclist with a heart that pumped incredible amounts of blood which will not happen from dopping. I doubt there was an inference to my brother here, but be that as it may, I am left here his brother Michael to asuage such nonsense. Dope products for intellectual dopes, but alas my brothers IQ was not measurable. I will always love Jan, Your brother , Michael