Over the past fifteen years or so, as the elite of professional cycling succumbed one by one to doping allegations, it became progressively more absurd to cling to the belief that Lance Armstrong, the most successful professional cyclist of all time, stood alone as being "clean".
With today's revelations in the New York Times it's safe to say the jig is up.
Apparently Lance still doesn't get it. His high-priced team of PR professionals is still beating the drum for his innocence.
Wrong strategy.
What Lance needs to do is fire the lot of them and fess up. Take responsibility. Ya, I doped and I lied about it.
Simple as that. Lance's credibility would be restored overnight.
It's not as if Lance pioneered doping in pro sports. (This blog has written about the clique of European doctors who were the pioneers.)
When all the guys around you are into the HGH strategies and blood doping, how can it be "cheating" if you do it too? Anybody who went with the prevailing winds in professional cycling over the last twenty years was merely creating a level playing field for themselves.
Heard a clip of Lance on the radio this afternoon talking about how the secret of his success was lots of hard work. Then the announcer came on with a sanctimonious pronouncement that "now we know it wasn't hard work; it was doping."
Wrong!
It WAS hard work, incredibly hard. We need to get over our petty moralizing and give Lance the credit he deserves.
Lance is the kind of sports icon who comes along once in a generation, if that.
Lance, dump your PR team and tell the truth.
You'll be bigger than ever.
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