Lance Armstrong recently made an announcement that he was no longer going to fight the doping allegations that were brought against him. Consequently, he was stripped of his Tour de France wins and given a lifetime ban by the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency. This guy has never once failed a drug test, yet he is continually being questioned about his “cleanness.” What gives?

What exactly did the USADA have on Armstrong to think he was doping?

Well, they have former teammates, Floyd Landis and Tyler Hamilton (both of whom have admitted to doping charges) and 10 others that say he did it. Plus copies of emails Landis wrote outlining a complex doping program within the U.S. Postal Service team. But, really that is a he said she said thing. They also supposedly have old urine samples that show he tested positive. So you’re going to have me believe that those old urine samples have not been tainted at all throughout the years and are actually his?

First, let’s understand why cyclists blood dope. The theory behind it is if you can add more red blood cells to your system, you will have more oxygen to be used, thus in an endurance sport it will help increase your stamina and ultimately your performance.

Recently, blood doping was done in two ways:

  1. Blood Transfusion – They would either take the athlete’s blood out of the body or a matching blood type from a donor and process it to add more red blood cells. Then before the time of the race, inject it back into the athlete, and away he goes. This is a risky maneuver so precision is in order to perform this correctly. Eventually, athletes got tired of doing it. Too much of a hassle. So, they moved onto the next phase.
  2. EPO – EPO is a synthetic drug that can be injected into the blood stream to where it stimulates bone marrow to create more red blood cells. EPO is a hormone that is also created in our body, but they have developed a test that can detect natural and artificial EPO. Not the easiest to detect though, but this test, plus maybe testing for other illicit steroids, and eyewitness testimony usually leads to an athlete being caught.

With all that being said, let’s go back to the original question: did Lance Armstrong dope? I am a cynic. I firmly believe that steroids run wildly in our Olympics, football, swimming, track and field, weightlifting, and any sport where you can get an athletic advantage. So, I do believe that Lance Armstrong did some type of blood doping or took some steroid to get an advantage.

Obviously, I have as much of the facts as you do, but here is why I think he did take something illegal.

First, I know it is a very inspirational story that he is a cancer survivor, but I’ve seen accounts that he had a very rigorous chemotherapy treatment to eliminate the cancer. That really takes a lot out of you physically and I don’t know if you can ever bounce back from that, especially for an endurance sport. Now, I did hear once that the therapy he had was an alternative choice from chemo so it wouldn’t affect his lung capacity. So, I will admit I’m not super knowledgeable on his process or how it would affect him physically. But, it does ring some bells. Maybe not if he had won one title, but seven?

Secondly, I just don’t care about the fact he never tested positive in over the hundreds of tests he took. Neither did Barry Bonds. Neither did A-Rod. Neither did Marion Jones. They were part of investigations (in fact, no one should have known about A-Rod, some idiot leaked it from the Mitchell Report), not failed drug tests. The cheaters are way ahead of the testers. Anybody who is getting caught is not following the proper “steroid taking” guidelines. They’re stupid.

Lastly, cycling is a sport that is notorious for their athletes trying to cheat. Case in point, look at the Tour de France’s runner-ups during the years that Armstrong won:

  •  Alex Zulle is a Swiss rider who was runner-up in 1999. A year before him placing second, he had admitted to using EPO for the previous 4 years. His team, Festina, was busted in 1998 leading to this admission.
  • Jan Ullrich, from Germany, was a three time runner-up to Armstrong and in 2006 was the highest profiled athlete implicated in a drug bust called “Operation Puerto.” He received a 2 year ban this past February, but has been retired for awhile.
  • Joseba Beloki, a Spanish rider who was runner-up in 2002, was also implicated in the same Puerto sting, but was later cleared of any charges.
  • Ivan Basso, an Italian rider who was runner-up in 2005, served a 2 year ban for blood doping.
  • Andreas Kloeden, another German rider who was runner-up in 2004, was accused of blood doping during the 2006 Tour de France. Kloeden, who is still competing, has denied these allegations.
  • Here is a bonus cyclist.  1996 Tour winner, Bjarne Riis of Denmark admitted in 2007 to using EPO, growth hormones, and cortisone.  The statute of limitations expires after 8 years for doping, so all they did was put an asterisk by his name.

Wow!!  How many other sports can you name where the best and highest profiled athletes of that sport continue to get in trouble for cheating?

In fact, the French paper the Liberation, went through Armstrong’s title years to eliminate any athlete that has been caught cheating or accused of cheating to see who would get the title in a specific year. In 2000, you would have to go to the 10th place athlete, Daniele Nardello, to find an athlete who has no cheating ties to his name. Same thing in 2002, who would have also been the 8th place athlete in 2004.

You mean to tell me the top 9 athletes in 2000 all have had implications or caught cheating and Lance Armstrong is doing it on his hard work and incredible genes? After battling cancer?

His story is great for Americans. He fights a great cause trying to eliminate cancer. I just don’t care that much about cycling to be disturbed if Armstrong cheated or not. I don’t know if you can even call it cheating if all the other top athletes are doing it. More like “keeping up with the Joneses.” But, if you want me to believe that he accomplished his wins cleanly, I don’t think I can. Looking at the facts I just told you above, if it walks like a duck, and sounds like a duck, then unfortunately in this case, it must be a duck.