So now we really know that it wasn’t all About The Bike
Where Lance Armstrong is concerned it seems that emotions can run pretty high after he finally came clean and admitted that he was the drugs cheat that everyone suspect him of all along.
For me he made one interesting assertion in his chat with Oprah that I wanted to explore further. When I did so on Facebook it caused a heated debate and got into areas that I hadn’t intended and so I thought I would try again here.
Before I do so I want to make it quite clear that nothing I put here in anyway should be taken as me condoning Armstrong’s actions – I don’t. He’s a liar and a cheat that deserves everything he gets and has hugely undermined the great charity work he has done. Also I got no impression that he was sorry in any way at all and that may very well be because of the reason I am about to explore here – that by taking EPO and having blood transfusions and the rest he was simply “levelling the playing field”. In other words that they were all at it and in his mind I think that this is all the justification he requires.
If we take Armstrong at his word (and why would we given that he has just exposed himself as a massive liar but stick with me here) and that all entrants in the Tour’s in which he won were similarly taking drugs too that does indeed, perhaps, create a “level playing field”, not one that I would choose to play on but nevertheless. It also suggests that if it indeed was level then Armstrong is still the best competitor and I do wonder if that is what he wants us to believe.
Of course, Armstrong may just have had a better chemist than anyone else, we will probably never know.
Image: © Rubenstein, photographer Martyna Borkowski