The other shoe has dropped
On August 23th, 2012, we all learned that Lance Armstrong would not challenge the USADA’s findings and lifetime ban against him for his alleged use of performance enhancing drugs. His statement, released on his website and sent to the news agencies, was his last personal cry of innocence, of his fatigue from fighting being railroaded by one man, Travis Tygart’s, personal vendetta to declare him a cheat. I just read it again, and it is believable and moving and it tugs at the one man against the world gene in all of us. USADA was banning him for life, he wasn’t fighting it, LIVESTRONG was his goal now, and he was “finished with this nonsense.” Except he wasn’t.
In the days that followed, I began my first blog post on this subject, and found the short opinion piece on little yellow bracelets, ballooning into a multi-faceted story on the whole Lance Armstrong “situation.” Cancer survivors, cycling, lying, deceit, layer after layer of the onion peeled back, left a stronger deeper stench. I heard the cries of “He passed 500 tests!,” “This is Tygart’s witch hunt!” and the like. I continued to wear my LIVESTRONG bracelet, not for LA’s cycling achievements, but for a reminder of the lives lost by my brother in law and more recently a friend to the behemoth that is cancer. It was bigger than Lance. It was about more, I told myself.
Two months went by and it didn’t go away. More speculation on who may or may not have testified in USADA’s report, and what they must have seen. The release of disgraced cyclist Tyler Hamilton’s tell all book, The Secret Race, on August 31st marks what seems to me, to be the beginning of the end. It is in-depth, and yes it is from an admitted doper, but it is deep and if you have a lick of common sense in you, any hold of doubt left should have been wiggling like a 7 year old’s tooth. Somewhere around this time, it occurred to me, that we really hadn’t seen any of the information from the so called “Tygart witch hunt,” yet either.
On October 11th, we all learned that at least one big name would be in the report. George Hincapie. Lance’s closest friend and member of every one of LA’s 7 Tour De France winning teams. He does his best to not name names, but we all know what he is saying. If big George doped, how are we to believe that Armstrong did not?
The same day the final shoe dropped. USADA’s Reasoned Decision agains Lance Armstrong, a 23 page document stating its case, and if you are reasonable person, the 7-year-old’s tooth is now bleeding on the floor. I don’t know what I expected from Travis Tygart and company, some sort of scribbled piece of paper saying “Lance is a doper, see!” or what, but this was not that. It is comprehensive and spells it out. If you believe it, not only did Lance dope, but apparently USPS ran the most extensive doping program in the sport. Shoe-dropped.
Over the past day, Nike, Radio Shack, Michelob and other sponsors have dropped Lance. This is a load of garbage to me. I can’t see for a moment how some of these sponsors had no clue. Many have made millions off the man and are now out. Scramble and cover your butt. More will come and the bleeding for Armstrong is far from over.
I am not sure if there was one moment from the above, or just all of it, but somewhere along the line, the constant lying and denials in light of the other evidence has soured me. I still believe in Santa Claus, ergo, I still want to believe that the Lance of the 7 tours was possible. I still support LIVESTRONG as I think it has done more good than any of the other nonsense. I still believe that Lance Armstrong was the greatest thing to happen to a sport I love. I still wear my LIVESTRONG bracelet in memory of my brother in law and friend. But yesterday I pulled on a Mellow Johnny’s t-shirt (from Armstrong’s bike shop in Austin), and I took it off and put on another, and I felt a little cleaner.
