Pazuzu said:
gooner said:
Saying he is a former winner, entails that he is still recognised as a Tour winner at some point in the past.
It shouldn't be referenced at all.
Good point. He should be forevermore be referred to simply as "disgraced cyclist Lance Armstrong."
I think that could apply to dozens of GT winners caught/implicated for doping over the last few decades.
My take on all of this: If LA wasn't the best placing doper in a prevelant doping era, then who won those Tours? Even more perplexing is the fact that the UCI won't elevate any of Ullrich's three 2nd place finishes, or those of others to LA's vacated titles because of doping, but yet they retain their podium placings (?). And I don't blame LA for fighting to preserve his Yellow jersey's with some of the crap going on with other GT winners.
For example, you've got Di Luca who's "loud & proud" of his doping and he gets to keep his Giro win (who knows...he might even be invited next year to the Giro for the 100th year anniversary as a honorary former Italian winner. Lol). You've got Piti, who in a recent interview with Cycling Tips, said he was good before his ban and even better after, and smugly says that no one questions his results anymore...and he gets to keep his Vuelta win. And there's Menchov, who rides off into the sunset after his passport sanction and gets to keep both his Giro & Vuelta titles. Just a few examples of the splendid inconsistencies with the UCI.
IMO, it's hard for some people to separate LA the athlete from LA the digusting, deplorable person he was back then. As an athlete he wasn't that bad competing in one day events and winning the Worlds on his self-admitted low-octane program against the other dopers of that time. But the guy was smart enough to realize that he couldn't compete for GT contention against the likes of good-responders to EPO such as Ullrich, Pantani, Zulle, etc. without some major changes and the help of one of the best in the business (he said he was getting his butt kicked by the EPO users). So, post-cancer Ferrari reorganized his doping program & restructured his training and LA leveled the playing field for himself. Highly ambitious I would say.
When you have prevelant doping like you did back then, all is fair in love and war. Lance beat them at their own game...people forget that most everyone back then that mattered were doping to the best of their abilities and resources. None of LA's rivals gave him a free pass in any of those 7 Tours. Even Ullrich has said on record that LA's titles should be reinstated due to the prevelance of doping during that time period. And with so many career dopers back then no one knows how good any of these guys are clean...if they were ever clean in the first place.
Should he just sit by and watch when others who have been sanctioned for doping get to keep their precious GT wins?
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