Armstrong congratulates Ullrich on a solid second place, or as of today, potentially, the Tour de France victory. Photograph: Robert Laberge/Getty Images
Safe to say that when I whittle your way through the entire cycling pyramid and discount anyone who doped or who I suspect of doping, I have just become the Tour de France champion ... SEVEN times.
You've all heard the news by now that rather than facing the evidence, or having it presented to the wider public, Lance Armstrong has ran away and accepted whatever the US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) decide to throw at him. The evidence we all hope will still come out allowing those few with their heads still buried in the sand to come up for a gasp of reality, but until it does this is Armstrong saying, 'You can take my titles, but my PR machine will ensure you don't take my good name'.
Do I think Armstrong doped? Absolutely. I'd love to see what evidence they have once and for all, but from what I've heard the evidence they do have is pretty serious and they have more than enough sworn witness testimony that was made before a Grand Jury of the United States government that suggests to me he's hardly the innocent boy in all of this. Not to mention the fact everyone he pummeled into the ground for seven straight years were doped to the eyeballs themselves. That of course should lead me to point out that despite being stripped of his titles today, he still won those Tours given who he beat along the way. Going after Lance is correct so long as the same standard applies to others from which evidence exists. Bjarne Riis and Jan Ullrich have admitted to doping yet remain the 1996 and 1997 champions, while there's a stack of evidence against the now deceased Marco Pantani who won in 1998. And what of Alberto Contador who still retains his victories from 2007 and 2008?
Which leads to a more interesting question: What do they do with Lance's seven vacant titles now that he's been stripped of them? That's a big hole in the record books and as much as I like to believe what I said in the opening paragraph, it's unlikely I'll find myself on a make shift podium in the centre of Paris anytime soon being handed seven years worth of Yellow jersey's. Cycling has a history of handing the title to the man who came second -- see Óscar Pereiro taking Floyd Landis's title in 2006 and Andy Schleck taking Contador's in 2010 -- but every man who would be set to inherit Armstrong's titles has been involved in some sort of doping rigmarole or another over the years whether it's suspicion, implication, a positive test, or flat out admission.
Let's look at the potential new tour podium:
1999: Alex Zülle, Fernando Escartin, Laurent Dufaux
2000: Jan Ullrich, Joseba Beloki, Christophe Moreau
2001: Jan Ullrich, Joseba Beloki, Andrei Kivilev
2002: Joseba Beloki, Raimondas Ramsas, Santiago Botero
2003: Jan Ullrich, Alexandre Vinokourov, Tyler Hamilton
2004: Andreas Klöden, Ivan Basso, Jan Ullrich
2005: Ivan Basso, Francisco Mancebo, Alexandre Vinokourov
Zülle was mixed up in the Festina affair and admitted to taking EPO but hasn't lost his records; Jan Ullrich has admitted to doping and was part of a Telekom team from which systematic doping was prevalent and hasn't lost his records pre 2005; Joseba Beloki was implicated in Operation Puerto and while later cleared he never raced seriously again; Andreas Klöden was part of that Team Telekom set up and believed to have taken EPO; while Ivan Basso was another Operation Puerto boy who served a suspension.
So to avoid a complete farce, you can't go handing the title down to the men who finished behind Armstrong. And if you do, does investigations start on them? You could leave Armstrong intact but many of the powers that be in anti-doping would feel that sends the wrong message, though I sometimes wonder about that. What cycling is likely to to do is leave these records blank. Nobody won these Tours and it can sit as a reminder to future generations as to how ugly it all got for a while. But don't stop there. If you're going to remove Lance from the list then remove everyone else who has admitted to drug us, been caught using drugs, or has been swept up in some scandal or another. And yes, that might mean the entire top twenty general classification of the 2003 Tour sits empty.
Here's the potentially revised record book for the Tour de France from 1990 to today if you strip away everyone caught up in drug use in some form or another.
1990: Greg LeMond
1991: Miguel Indurain
1992: Miguel Indurain
1993: Miguel Indurain
1994: Miguel Indurain
1995: Miguel Indurain
1996:
1997:
1998:
1999:
2000:
2001:
2002:
2003:
2004:
2005:
2006:
2007:
2008: Carlos Sastre
2009:
2010:
2011: Cadel Evans
2012: Bradley Wiggins
(Note: Bjarne Riis, Marco Pantani, Lance Armstrong, Floyd Landis, Alberto Contador, all convicted of, admitted to, or linked to performance enhancing drugs. Stipped of all titles, no replacement required).
Whether you believe the names still on the list were clean or not is up to you though general consensus seems to suggest you can hang your hat on LeMond and Wiggins.
The list looks terrible, and it is, but let's face it ... those who competed in that era earned this look.
