No matter how much people cheat or are accused of cheating, one fact remains, you erase things on your computer, you can erase words on paper, but it is hard to erase when someone has accomplished as much as one person has done for the sport of Cycling as Lance Armstrong has. If he did indeed cheat then yes he should be banned, as for the record number of titles that he won put an asterisk next to them. But for the ICU to say that they wish there will be no winner for this period sounds like to me, that there is more than they are willing to admit to. For them not to declare a winner other than Armstrong is an indictment on the other cyclists that ran those races. Is it possible that they all were not clean, and only because of jealously (Floyd Landis) accused Armstrong of the same thing? Let’s face it no one knew or cared enough about cycling in this country until Armstrong came along. His notoriety did more for the sport than anyone before or after Armstrong. It would be like the NBA decided to take away Michael Jordan’s six NBA Titles because he was involved in a betting scandal, then say by the way we are going to forget you even existed, and every video or game you every played in doesn’t exist. Would that makes sense? Of course not. Yet this is the same slippery slope that Major League Baseball has with Mark McGwire, Sammy Sosa, Alex Rodriguez, Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens and the entire band of players linked to steroids. It’s one thing to ban someone like the ICU did with Armstrong but to say he doesn’t exist or that Alex Rodriguez doesn’t exist because he did steroids is ridiculous. It doesn’t mean you forget these players or Armstrong’s case cyclist ever played or rode a bike in France. There were plenty of cyclists who cheated, go after them with the same passion and zeal you go after Armstrong, make them give back all their earnings or titles they may have won in other events. But until that time you can ban the man but can’t no matter how you try, wish him away as if he never existed.
smallthoughtsinasportsworld 