How quickly we turn on past heroes. A paraphrase from the early days of the Floyd Landis saga; when Dick Pound and Pat McQuaid rushed to judgement and to the microphone to declare Floyd Landis guilty of doping long before the ink dried on the lab document package. Simpler days when a man's word meant something and the lack of process could be questioned as nothing more than a lynching party.
But the supreme goat and scoundrel Lance Armstrong, was voted sport villain number one by disgruntled Americans who are tired of the endless doping saga and the dopes who level the playing field by doping. Query: How is one to compete with a zonked out peloton who have the best doctors with syringes filled with cocktails that make you climb out of the saddle all the way up beyond category cols at fifteen miles an hour without dope? Better still, how do you win a Tour de France or any of the other grand tours without dope? Because let us be realistic, is it physiologically possible to ride up a category one climb and two beyond category climbs in one stage at four hundred watts, and sit in the saddle spinning for five hours at a stretch without bonking, sans dope?
Lance Armstrong knew he could not realistically compete and win multiple grand tours without performance enhancing drugs. But Lance Armstrong had the insatiable desire to win at all costs and he ignored the consequences of his behavior: ultimate catastrophe.
What they never see always catches them...heartache people.
Nick Gravenites
Joseph's Coat
Well, the consequences of his long awaited confession have been dramatic for Lance Armstrong, his resignation from his charitable organization Livestrong, for example, and the eternal line of greedy litigants pounding on his door demanding retribution. But for most Americans, the Lance Armstrong saga produced one collective yawn. Scooped by a catfish scam, deer antler spray, (does this crap really contain some sort of prohibited growth factor?) and a long laundry list of baseball players linked to a anti-aging clinic that dispensed performance enhancing drugs without a prescription, by a charlatan quack pretending to be a doctor, and alleged payments made to the clinic by names already tainted by dope, Ryan Braun and Alex Rodriquez. As the mainstream press will constantly remind us with infinite repetitions, Ryan Braun escaped a fifty game suspension from baseball due to a technicality in the chain of custody, even though his urine sample was dirty with elevated testosterone. As for Alex Rodriquez, that guy played wired to the max and the Yankees are looking for an out in his contract.
Lance Armstrong was counting on what, sympathy for the devil? Apparently, the only people who even had a passing interest in Lance Armstrong was USADA. Did Lance Armstrong and Travis Tygart strike a deal: information on how to defeat the doping tests in exchange for a reduced sentence? Did USADA demand statements under oath and under interrogation that Lance Armstrong used performance enhancing drugs, trafficked dope, bullied, intimidated, and forced people to use dope against their wills? That he threatened anyone who questioned him with legal retribution, character assassination, and financial devastation? Curiously, Lance Armstrong has a Jekyll and Hyde syndrome depending upon his mood. First he demands a meeting with Travis Tygart complaining that he is being singled out for persecution, then Armstrong storms out the door in a fit of rage. Then Armstrong is all repentant willing to cooperate. The man is like a yo-yo in zero gravity. But really outside of USADA and the criminal justice system does anyone really care whether or not Lance Armstrong ever competes in another triathlon?
Not really. USADA wants Lance Armstrong to commit suicide by admission and the fool has enough arrogance and self confidence in himself to bury himself because he thinks he is in control and therefore invulnerable. Lance Armstrong, like ancient kings who enforce power with barbarity and violence never realize the danger until they are deposed. Then they always show the greatest surprise that the peasants have rebelled against their munificence.
What they never see always catches them....
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