I am just curious to see how many think that what USADA is doing is a good procedure? I, like I am sure many are, would love to see the 'evidence'. However, I am extremely uncomfortable with the process and that antagonistic process that has USADA and WADA on one side, and the UCI and US Cycling on the other ... with the implicit dangling that ALL cyclists of that (and presumeably this one as well) era have doped?
Well, we saw what happened with Wiggins TdF victory this year, with the accusations of doping sans evidence, just whispered through innuendo - a stanard high enough that - 12 years from now, and ambitious politician can use Wiggins victory as an crusading example of his anti-doping bonafides, because no doper can be left ... unpunished?
Are you still in favor of this approach?
Well, how about we pick your favorite cyclist and see if this system hold up? Let's say I found ten witnesses, all anonymous mind you, and an embittered former team mates wife to accuse ...
#1 - Cadel Evans?
#2 - Jens Voigt (My personal favorite)
#3 - Chris Froome?
#4 - Greg LeMond (Its retroactive remember?)
This is the standard you have to meet, and if you don't like we will give you a life time ban and strip you of every result you ever had.
How do cyclists like this? Since they are, according to the rumor mill, ALL doping, are you willing to submit to this process where, if you so much as flirted with dope when you were 16 (which of course EVERY cyclist has, right?) you can submitted to such a sketchy process? Especially when the only distinction between whether you are on the rebutting or accusing end of this process being ... whether or not you produced race results?
This is a process that fundamentally undermines concepts of due process or impartiality. Its not like the world is just now figuring out how judicial processes work ... but the antics of anonymous accusations and withheld evidence (What is Armstrong, a terrorist at GITMO????) belong more to a police state than to a professional sport.
Whether Armstrong doped or not? Its secondary to the farse of a process that places so much power and unchecked authority into a single man's hands. No matter what the system, some people will beat it. If you abandon the system however, you are left with ... innuendo, accusation, and witch hunt.
Perhaps we should ask the previous TWO TdF victors whether they appreciate the process unfolding now?