A simple tear and a the word 'sorry' might yet save Armstrong. Photograph: Reuters
It would seem the way to do it in modern cycling is to begin your professional career by cheating like hell. Drug up and drug often, and win races until you are caught. Then in a teary press conference in front of the cycling world break down in apology.
Say sorry to your team, your fellow pros, your friends and don't forget your family, then after serving your ban (don't forget to keep your prize money!) come back as a staunch anti-doping advocate. You'll be welcomed back with open arms and remembered more as a once lost sheep now back in the fold as opposed to a one time cheat. If worst comes to the worst and you don't get caught, then you'll finish up your career as a very good rider as opposed to a decent rider.
It's tried and tested and you don't need examples here of cyclists who have used it. Saying that, it would appear cycling and its fans hold their contempt of cheating to a higher standard. Even British football fans dismay at the corruption of good English boys by foreign divers is vastly outweighed by cycling fans hate of a doper.
Of course, just because you might get away with it at the time, doesn't mean the world won't catch up with you in the end. "Be sure your sin will find you out" -- Numbers 32:23. Lance Armstrong ought to have had that message on a plaque somewhere in his house because his life-time of cheating has finally caught up to him. It was like a wave that is small to being with but grows and grows with the evidence that piling up, more witnesses's coming forward and more and more fans that buying into the reality. Eventually it reached it's peak this past week and has crashed all around him. Yet rather than doing the done thing and just tell all, Armstrong has remained resolute with a loyal band of followers who believe it's all a big set up. In other words, Armstrong has tried to surf the wave.
A continued denial as opposed to a tearful apology is a unique approach, but I don't see it working out for him somehow. Some say that the old adage of 'If you're not cheating, you're not trying' applies across the board in sport and you see it carried out in all forms from doping in cycling to diving in football. They said the only mistake is getting caught, and Armstrong probably knows this all too well, but surely he needs reminded that when you do, you always have the apology as your get out of the court of public opinion and into the sanctuary of public sympathy free card.
