ART’S EDITORIAL : THE GREATEST CYCLIST WE KNOW!

WHAT THIS MEANS TO ME

Lance Armstrong came out with his statement this last week stating “Enough is enough.” and he is not going to pursue his fight to go into arbitration with the USADA ending his battle in clearing his name and all allegation of doping, but of course the USADA came out and stated that this was an admission of guilt and stripped Lance Armstrong of his 7 TDF titles and banned him for life from racing.

So how did I feel about this, did I feel let down by Lance, did I feel that what he has did for cycling in the USA is now not worth doing, or do I feel like one of Americas best hero’s, a crusader for Cancer, a fighter with the strongest of wills to push far beyond most humans has somehow let down a nation that needs someone like him and now he’s a cheater.
“Hell no, my hats off to him for saying enough is enough!” Screw the USADA and Travis Tygart, what gives them the right to strip him of his 7 TDF titles. They are the UNITED STATES ANTI-DOPING AGENCY not the UCI (INTERNATIONAL CYCLING UNION), I mean the last time I checked the UCI was the governing body that handles international bans of their cyclist not the United States governing body of all sports in the WORLD telling the UCI what to do. I have never seen the USADA ban a foreign rider for the UCI.

The UCI has been against the USADA’s law suit of Armstrong and have supported him, so I say to the UCI, no I challenge the UCI to pronounce “LANCE ARMSTRONG IS STILL 7 TIME TOUR DE FRANCE TITLE HOLDER!!!”

OK we all know his background of fighting cancer, winning 7 TDF championships, countless lawsuits fighting doping charges from 1999 to 2012. (see Lance’s statement CNN.com 08/24/12), fourteen years of fighting this crap. Fourteen YEARS!! This is enough to make anyone say enough, I don’t blame him one bit and to spend the amount of money to go through this, its got to be millions.

So what does all this mean to me. I didn’t start really paying attention to the Tour till Greg Lemond won, this was a BIG, BIG deal, I mean the first American to win the Tour De France, a race we as American’s were never suppose to win in a sport that was dominated by the Europeans. Now I was not into cycling like I am now, but I understood the significance behind this, then comes Lance Armstrong. I will never forget the 99′ TDF when him and Ullrich were battling and Ullrich goes down bad and what does Lance do when he hears what happens, he waits for Ullrich, what a sportsman, then you had the famous Lance look back. Oh man if you got that handed to you, you were done and you just knew Lance was gone. It was the ultimate confidence breaker.

There is know doubt that he is by far the greatest TDF competitor on the planet, so when did this really start to become a real problem for Lance in my eyes, well Lance retires in 05″ after his 7th win Floyd Landis wins the Tour, but he’s busted for doping. Now if you ever saw this Tour Landis was not doing good, one day he’s way back not looking strong at all, but then comes back and just kills it. Okay I’m thinking cool, but wow this was an incredible come from behind win even Lance has never done a win like this. Landis is tested and well we know what happens, denial and of course he is stripped of his title, but he then starts pointing fingers. Tyler Hamilton came out and stated lance has doped, by the way both Landis and Hamilton who were former teammates of Lance.

Greg Lemond has been against all the doping in the sport back when he raced.  Lemond has even come out and said Lance has doped. Man was there a battle between these two.
I do believe no sport should have the athletes cheating.

The USADA can say what they want and do what they want, but Lance Armstrong will always be 7 time TDF champion. Come on lets look at this, Lance beats cancer, wins 7 TDF titles, retires, comes back after few years off not getting in enough training time to place 3rd in one of the WORLD’S toughest races know to man, and in the mean time since 99 has been the MOST tested athlete in the world since. He has NEVER, NEVER tested positive for drug use, do you think in all that time you would make one, I mean ONE mistake. Could one man have that much power and influence over the UCI and all those around him that all would be quite this long. I don’t know about you, but I would think that with people being greedy someone would have ratted out Lance a long time ago, hell our own President’s have gotten caught for stupid crap they do and Lance has way more power then them to keep people quite. He must pay them well.  I gotta say NOT!!

I want to see the absolute truth, the facts, the proof, a smoking gun that blows the doors wide open not a blood and urine test from 99, or here say. Screw you Mr. Travis Tygart of the USADA, I’m sure taking down Lance is a big punch ticket in your book and your patting yourself on the back right now.

The only thing Tygart has done is make Cycling look bad for the UCI and I sure as hell hope the UCI doesn’t let some other country tell them how to do their business.

All I can say is” Mr. Lance Armstrong you have given me some of the most exciting racing I have ever seen in my life. You have given me the will to push myself in my racing and to NEVER EVER give up, how to be a true sportsmen and professional.”
Thank you for all you have given us and I hope for the best to you and your family and I understand why you did this and you will hold your head up high and proud. Lance you will always will be one of the greatest cyclists alive to this sport.

I hope that some day I can meet you and give you a handshake.

“GO LANCE!!”

These are my opinions and are not in any way the expressed views of MtnBikeRiders.com.
Photos provided via Internet.