The past twelve months have been superb for British cycling with Tour de France and Olympic glory, but the revelations of the past month have severely damaged the reputation of cycling once more. Lance Armstrong was widely acclaimed to be the best cyclist who has ever lived, yet the remarkable story of his career which involved a battle against testicular cancer before he won seven consecutive Tour de France titles, has been shrouded by the acrimony of the doping charges that the American has been condemned of.
To put it simply Armstrong’s formerly legendary reputation is now in tatters. He has been labelled a “serial cheat” by the United States Anti-Doping Society, and has been charged with leading “the most sophisticated, professionalised and successful doping programme that sport has ever seen.” Armstrong had already been banned for life and stripped of his seven Tour de France titles by Usada before the latest report. Now with damning evidence from 11 of his former teammates, including BMC rider George Hincapie and Floyd Landis, who was stripped of his 2006 Tour de France title after being found guilty of doping offences, his status as one of history’s greatest sportsmen has been rescinded. Instead Armstrong will now be seen as many by a fraudulent cheat, who brought cycling into disrepute.
According to the report Armstrong relied on drugs throughout his career, yet the American denies that he ever took any doping products. Even more shocking is that Armstrong’s US Postal Service team-mates were also forced to undergo the doping programme in order to increase their performance thus benefitting their leader. The report read: “It was not enough that his team-mates give maximum effort on the bike, he also required that they adhere to the doping programme outlined for them or be replaced.” The operation was as sophisticated as they come, with every detail planned from how to attain the drugs, to how to avoid getting caught.
Usada stated that there was “conclusive and undeniable proof” that Armstrong was a cheat throughout his career, and that the evidence is “beyond strong”. 41 year old Armstrong has not contested the charges. However not everyone has been so critical of the Texan, British cyclist Roger Hammond, a former teammate described him as a “fantastic teammate” who “never, ever” offered him any form of banned performance enhancing substances. Yet the evidence against the Texan is overwhelming, and as David Epstein commented: “Ultimately, the evidence outlined in the report paints a picture of Armstrong as something of a doping trailblazer.”
So what impact will this have on cycling, a sport which has constantly battled against doping for the past decades? Cycling has been undermined by doping charges for years, and Armstrong’s case has hindered the apparent recovery that the sport has been making, and comes as another blow after Alberto Contador was banned in February 2012 for taking performance enhancing substances. According to British Cycling boss Dave Brailsford, the latest revelations have damaged cycling and made it hard to trust anyone in the sport. In relation to Usada’s report he told BBC Radio 5 Live: “It is shocking, its jaw dropping and it is very unpleasant.”
It will undoubtedly take cycling a while to recover from this latest blow, and the doping cloud once more looms large over cycling. Five of Armstrong’s former teammates have been handed reduced bans for their participation in the scandal, whilst French cyclist Steve Houanard recently failed a drugs test. The battle against doping allegations has been ongoing for years, and by the looks of the latest developments the struggle still has some way to go. The strong anti-doping stance portended by Team Sky is refreshing to see, and other teams seem to be following suit, as the sport slowly drags its way out of the mire it had descended into. Yet after the steps forward of the past months, the Armstrong case has seen doping once more become centre stage and engulf world cycling. A former hero of cycling has now turned into arguably the sport’s greatest villain.