What a waste of time that turned out to be. Photograph: AFP/Getty
Lance Armstrong is on more than just drugs now ... he's on a banned for life list courtesy of the UCI. As I sit here writing this, I have now won as many Tours de France as him and that's quite the achievement for someone who has won but two mountain bike races (all this year) in the past decade.
Yes, pull up Wikipedia and search 'Tour de France winners' and already you'll see the word 'Vacated' in place of where it used to say Lance Armstrong seven times between 1999 and 2005. Greg LeMond is once again the only American to have won cycling's biggest prize.
Speaking before a collection of cycling hacks, UCI head-suit, Pat McQuaid confirmed what we knew and did what we expected he would do when left with no more rugs with which to sweep allegations against Lance Armstrong under. He confirmed his old pal, Lance Armstrong had been stripped of his seven Tour de France titles and banned from cycling for life.
"Armstrong has no place in cycling," slammed McQuaid. "Something like this must never happen again," he continued as he withdrew his head from the sand. After years of refusing to listen to those former team-mates of Armstrong who were willing to speak up, and the likes of Floyd Landis whom he preferred to chase around with a lawsuit rather than to consider what he had to say, McQuaid took the road of pretending this was all new stuff. "I'm sorry that we couldn't catch every damn one of them and throw them out of the sport at the time."
When it came to the point where he perhaps should have announced his own resignation, for in part not doing more to seek out the truth when there was an investigation to be had, McQuaid said the fight against doping is his priority and that "there's still more work to be done. I have no intention of resigning."
Who will win the seven Tours between 1999 and 2005 remains undecided. Rather than meet before today's press conference to discuss the answer to such an important question, McQuaid said a special meeting would take place on Friday.
You would like to think nobody will be awarded them, but rather left blank as a reminder as to what happened then and as a reminder that we never want the sport going back there. McQuaid said that "Armstrong deserves to be forgotten in cycling now," and that might be so, but the story shouldn't be forgotten because if it is, it'll only happen again.
For Lance however, today is the end of the road. Oakley, his final sponsor left standing, pulled out and with an almost universal acceptance now that he did cheat, I think only a wrath of lawsuits are stopping him from coming clean once and for all. A Lance admission could only be good for cycling, but I'm not sure we're going to get it this side of his death bed.
