Last week seven-time Tour de France winner, cyclist Lance Armstrong, received the letter he hoped would never come. The United States Anti-Doping Agency, which regulates Olympic and many amateur sports, told Armstrong they would recommend that charges be filed against him for using and trafficking performance enhancing substances. They claim to have results from blood samples taken in 2009/10 that indicate he was involved in blood doping. While these are not criminal charges, he could have his Tour de France victories vacated and be banned from participating in cycling or the triathlons he currently competes in.
The USADA claims they have 10 witnesses who claim to have seen him engaging in blood doping. Cyclist and former Armstrong teammate Tyler Hamilton made such claims on 60 Minutes. Blood doping uses natural compounds like the hormone erythropoietin (EPO) which signals the body to make more red blood cells. This gives an athlete an advantage in speed and endurance by boosting oxygen transportation throughout the body. The margin of victory in most sports is so narrow that a blood doping athlete gets an unfair competitive advantage.
Lance Armstrong has been a venerated athlete. Not only did he dominate the world competition in a sport which Europe specializes in but he has been a powerful role model. He survived testiscular cancer and went on to unbelievable athletic achievement. He has led a scandal free life. He created the Livestrong Foundation and movement in raising cancer awareness and funding which has had a major impact. Thousands of his wristbands are worn daily. And these charges threaten his legacy.
For the past 40 years I have encouraged athletes to utilize their high profile to trigger imitative behavior, especially with adolescents. I have seen the impact that Lennox Lewis had when he did a public service campaign that said "real men don't hit women" or Oscar De La Hoya and Steve Young with their "prejudice is foul play" PSA. My clients have raised over $700 million dollars for charities and community programs around the country. This profile can do wonderful things for the world, but when it is associated with negative behavior it can send the wrong message. It would be harmful to all the fans of Lance Armstrong if the allegations are proved.
Adolescents confront the temptation to use performance enhancing substances on a daily basis. High school athletes are urged to be "bigger,stronger and faster". They are inherently competitive and focused on short-term performance, not long-term health. Other young men get addicted to the weight room experience and the desire to remake their bodies. Both groups can turn to steroids or supplements if they are not properly educated. The physical danger inherent in long-term steroid use will manifest itself increasingly as athletes age. There is a severe emotional and behavioral roller coaster that can result. In the 80s in the NFL, I argued with clients against steroid use. They often experienced intense anger -- sometimes called "roid rage" -- and they would become depressed after a cycle was over. We had wives complain and one client killed himself. That is why everyone associated with the NFL supported a ban and testing. There was none of the denial and labor-management argument that occurred in Major League Baseball -- we saw it as a matter of life and death.
The problem with supplements that are sold to enhance body building and performance in nutrition and vitamin stores throughout the country is that they are not regulated by the FDA. They can contain speed like substances which alter behavior. The combination of the supplements that are taken may have negative synergistic effects and there is no way to verify purity. This practice is like playing Russian Roulette with a body as a test tube.
While I hope that Lance Armstrong did not engage in blood doping, which includes transfusing more oxygenated blood prior to competition, I know that players have evidenced a great capacity to use technology to frustrate testing. Please be careful with your own bodies and long-term health and be vigilant in safeguarding your children.
Clemens wasn't acquitted because the jurors believed that he didn't use steroids or didn't lie to Congress. Clemens was acquitted because as a society we have come to understand the prosecutorial technique of charging with perjury someone that you can't prove actually committed the crime/activity in question. When your best technicians can't prove that Armstrong doped after having hundreds of shots at him, the current inquisition can only be characterized as nothing more than sour grapes. The USADA should spend its time and money pursuing more reliable testing techniques instead of pursuing Armstrong.
He has 10 former teammates from the tour that are coming out saying that he doped. This is not about the tests anymore, it's the all witnesses.
The fact that you pass 500 tests doesn't mean you aren't cheating. The tests are easily beaten. Just look at Pro Football. Those guys are tested and does anyone believe pro football players are not on steroids? Lance dominated a very dirty sport by being better at being dirtier.
I don't know whether or not Lance doped. I do know that no matter what the outcome of the hearing, nothing will have been proven.
1. Lance has better resources to beat the testing. Take a look at his coaching staff that's is identified in the USADA letter. They are the best in the world at training and beating the tests. 2. Why test? Because the sport is dirty so you have to test. The athletes and their chemists are better at the game than the labs. Remember, people are very well paid to help athletes beat the tests. 3. The witnesses have been coming out for years and have been silenced by the Armstrong machine one way or another. Most of the witnesses were teammates and friends. Hincapie is one of the witnesses. He was Lances top Lieutenant for all of the Tour wins. Lance is delusional and he believes he's invincible. His strategy was to pay people well, make sure the whole team was juicing and people would keep quiet. Pay off or sue anyone that makes trouble.This strategy won 7 Tours. Marion Jones was tested 180 times and never failed. Won multiple Gold, then confessed. If ten of your teammates are willing to state under oath that their captain was doping and that the team's staff was providing the dope and doing the blood transfusions before and after races for the team then it's overwhelming testimony. It will be proven that he cheated. For Lance, just beating every test by a whisker was a competition he had to win. He sees it as 500 wins.
IMO, Lance is a smart, gifted rider with a well organized business that allows him to hire the best doctors, chemists, lawyers, coaches and team riders that will do what needs to be done to win at all costs.
Bottom Line: the tests can be fooled if you stay on top of your blood and urine with good internal testing of your own and use masking agents. The Bulgarian doctor said that that the masking agents were always few months ahead of the labs. Lance fooled the test 500+ times (and failed it once for the Tour of Switzerland and then immediately made a donation to the head of the International Cycling Union for 125K). I wonder why Cheryl Crow left him? She had to have known.
To someone that understands cycling, to someone that has ridden professional cycling races, including understanding all the nuances, the tactics – having an acute comprehension on the effort required just to ride a quarter of a mile faster than the group – Armstrong, unfortunately had to be enhanced to put the necessary time into his opponents at those critical stages in each of the TDF’s that he won. It is clear and obvious to someone that knows what it takes. It is without a doubt why he won so many times. Of course, he was very careful on how he expended his energy, to ensure that he did not draw attention to the learned cycling fans or the commentators who can tell if someone is “charged up” or not.
Here is this on display in the 2000 TDF
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=FXPXHK7I1iQ
When Landis rode away from Contador and the bunch in 2006, a race that he won and then stripped of his title because he got caught, it was clear as broad daylight that he was enhanced.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=UHCRhzrSRA0
This will be the all defining catalyst that will take professional cycling to its deepest darkest hour, but, will be the all defining catalyst that will clean up the sport for good.
He could have been using something undetectable by these tests but, if that is the case, so could have everybody else. I have read that Armstrong has been subjected to more drug tests than any other TDF cyclist. At some point this begins to look like an enforcement agency fueled by a grudged.