Armstrong must contemplate what his next move is. Photograph: Mark Gunter | AFP
Just when Lance Armstrong thought it was safe to go outside and play again what with the US feds having dropped their case against him back in February and the Tour de France set to make all the cycling based headlines over the next month or so, the United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) have served the seven time winner of the Tour de France with formal doping charges spanning a period of 13-years, thus threatening to expose the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth in the long term, while taking away from the build-up to the Tour de France in the short term.
You all know the background to this already even though it only broke yesterday evening. The allegations against Armstrong are nothing new and he's been trying to swat them off for years now, but finally it looks as though USADA are going to present evidence along with witness testimony that could see the Texan held to account for his shady practices.
The accusations against Armstrong were sent to him in a 15-page letter that was leaked to The Washington Post. According to the newspaper, the letter alleges that Armstrong and five other former cycling team associates, including three doctors and the team manager, Johan Bruyneel, engaged in a doping conspiracy from 1998-2011. Among the witnesses are said to be more than ten cyclists.-- Owen Slot, The Times, June 13, 2012
The letter itself can be viewed in its entirety, here and alleges the use of almost every performance enhancing drug under the sun by Armstrong. The man himself called the charges "baseless, motivated by spite and advanced through testimony bought and paid for by promises of anonymity and immunity", while maintaining his innocence to doping by stating, as ever, that he has "passed more than 500 drug tests and never failed one".
It is believe that if convicted Armstrong risks being stripped of his seven tour titles which to me would almost laughable, for Armstrong won in an era when almost everyone else was doing the same thing. By all means ban him from future competitions, and even stick an asterisks beside his name in the record books, but if they take away past results, who will they promote to be the winner of the Tours between 1999 and 2005? Jan Ullrich? You could hardly take such a move seriously.
Where this goes will be fascinating. What evidence do USADA have exactly and how does Armstrong tend to fight it? Will he fight it, or will he do what he probably should have done a long time ago and just hold his hands up? It might be too late for that now however. People learn to forgive very quickly a man who admits his guilt -- see Floyd Landis and Tyler Hamilton as primary examples -- but get bitter on someone who continues to deny it, hoping to pull the wool over their eyes.
Armstrong now has seven days with which to decide what his next move is. Sadly that will take us a week closer to the start of the Tour de France which will only serve to detract from the race's build up even more which is sad. The Tour de France is two weeks around the corner, and the USADA know it. It's no coincidence that the charges have been laid in mid-June as opposed to mid-November which might have suited the sport a little better. It's unfortunate because it gives the mainstream media even more leverage of criticism towards the sport as a whole.
Expect the whole thing to get ugly and expect it to get bigger as the weeks and months go on, but whatever happens, when it's done, I hope it's put to bed for good and we can finally get back to concentrating on the future of cycling and the athletes of today, not yesterday.
